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Sally Wolf: What I learned by never giving up on my first advocacy piece

Photo from Sally Wolf/LinkedIn

Sep 12, 2024, 12:46

Sally Wolf: What I learned by never giving up on my first advocacy piece

Sally Wolf shared on LinkedIn:

“ While many folks told me I might never get it published, here’s what I learned by never giving up on my first advocacy piece two years ago today:

𝟭. 𝗪𝗲 𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝗹𝗮𝘂𝗴𝗵 𝗮𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘄𝗶𝗹𝗱𝗰𝗮𝗿𝗱𝘀 𝘄𝗲 𝗰𝗮𝗻𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗿𝗼𝗹.

Queen Elizabeth died the same day this published – by a UK outlet that gave me my ‘yes’ after many rejections – so my piece was buried far below the digital fold!

𝟮. 𝗪𝗲 𝗻𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝗸𝗻𝗼𝘄 𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝗼𝗻𝗲 ‘𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴’ 𝗺𝗮𝘆 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗱.

Sharing my essay led to many monthly visits / comments at MTA board meetings, which yielded a couple TV interviews, too. All of which opened me up to more…

𝟯. 𝗪𝗲 𝗼𝗳𝘁𝗲𝗻 𝗳𝗮𝗶𝗹 𝘁𝗼 𝗱𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗺 𝗯𝗶𝗴 𝗲𝗻𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵.

This essay sparked me to keep advocating. Tomorrow I’ll be lobbying on Capitol Hill before joining other disability advocates celebrating the ADA at The White House.

All of this from an essay that took great effort to publish and – admittedly – presents an idea that I’m not sure will ever happen: to have a single masked car on each train.

(Despite still hugely believing in its merit. I’m fittingly writing this post on an Amtrak train, and if we can have a quiet car, we can have a masked car… original essay in pinned comment below)

While there are times I wish my road map felt clearer, or my efforts yielded progress faster, I’ve come to realize that the discomfort uncertainty often brings can be mitigated when fueled by deep, genuine passion.

Question: What lessons have you learned from your persistence and/or passion?”

Source: Sally Wolf/LinkedIn

Sally Wolf is the CEO and founder of LightWorks. She is also a freelance writer. Previously, she was a Co-Creator, OneFifty, and Executive Director, Content Development and New Audience Innovation at Time Warner Inc.