Once upon a time there was a site....it was a quaint little site with high quality stories and high quality authors. This site was run by one woman, and she worked hard to make it a site everyone could enjoy. There was no forum, and no blogs, but there were beautiful pages and nice layouts. It was obvious that the owner of the site cared greatly for her authors and her readers.

One of the best aspects of her site was the lack of any political discussion. There was none to be found, and life was harmonious amongst the authors and the readers. One day, though, the owner was watching MSNBC and saw an anchorman giving a commentary. She loved what the anchorman had to say, and she wanted to emulate this man. She didn't worry about the fact that he was the anchorman of a show about politics, and that this was his field of expertise.....she wanted to have the same effect on others as the anchorman had on her. So she added a political forum to her site, and things fell apart. An author decided he didn't want his stories posted at her site anylonger, and in an act of spite and pure rage, she mass emailed parts of an email he sent to her when he asked to be withdrawn from her site.

When she was advised in private by another that she was making a huge mistake and that she shouldn't have shared a private exchange with others, she became enraged and told the adviser that he should consider leaving her site as well. She was determined to be as influencial as that anchorman she saw on MSNBC.

What she failed to realize was that she was already that influencial. She had an audience, respect, and a message that people felt comfortable hearing. What she was seeking was already under her nose, but she was looking so hard for it in other places, she missed it. Instead of continuing down the path toward greatness that she was on, she took a sharp left turn and now her site is no longer seen in the prestigious light it once was.

The lesson.....when you find success, build on it, but remember what made you the success you were. Too many times in life, we seek the things we already have, but we're too blind to know that it's been there the whole time.

BTW, the special site in my special story is NOT www.gayauthors.org