Dear Reader Column 2-21-05

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Dear Reader,

My life is kind of like the quilts that I sew. I'm not a gifted seamstress. In fact, when I sew my quilting squares aren't always straight, so the rows don't always line up. But in the end, when everything gets sewn together, and I hold up the quilt, it looks pretty impressive. And nobody even notices the square in the corner that's too short.

It's exciting when I sit down to begin sewing a quilt, because there isn't any pattern that I follow. I just make it up as I go along. And my business life has been that way too.

Want to start your own business? "Write out a five year business plan"--that's the advice you'll find in most business books. But I've opened a restaurant, launched a business magazine--and then the book clubs--all without mapped-out plans ahead of time. Instead, kind of like my approach to making a quilt, I cut one square, then another, take one idea and the next one, and sew them together--piece by piece--designing and making adjustments along the way.

Sometimes reporters ask me, "Suzanne, where do you want your business to be in five years?" And I tell them that honestly, I really wouldn't want to know. I prefer to take it one square at a time.

Thanks for reading with me. It's so good to read with friends.

Suzanne Beecher
[email protected]
www.DearReader.com

P.S. I have 20 copies of The Rosary Girls by Richard Montanari to giveaway. All you need to do to enter the drawing is send me an email.

Comments

[Norma]

Your approach to projects is similar to mine. It seems to me that some of the best compliments I have received were things that I did that were unplanned or I had to make up as I worked the current assignment. They went along with what the current project was and worked out well.

There's a great quilt pattern out there that is perfectly named "Lopsided Hearts", made from remnants and looks great when it is completed. The wrong of it looks right.

Thanks for coming into my e-mail box. Enjoy your column and reviews.

[Roberta Morrison]

Dear Suzanne,
I enjoy all of your weekly book, they really help in deciding what to select and to read.
As a graduate of Rosary (now Dominican), I would love to receive a copy of Rosary Girls.
Thanks, Roberta Morrison