Evan, glad this helped. Maybe the clients would be interested if you altered or reworked the proposals. Maybe not. In any case, keep on truckin’. With enough market research and fine-tuning, someone somewhere is going to go for one of your proposals, and I hope that someone shows up soon!

Aurora, wow, thank you! I’m flattered to know that you’ll consider bookmarking my post. I appreciate your suggestions about including concrete examples… that would have been a great idea, and I wish it had occurred to me at the time I was writing this. To provide an example now without giving away too much about me, I can say that I have worked for a while in a niche area of writing that is almost impossible to break into, and I have been ruthless about trying to get my work out there and considered. I have been making attempts to improve my writing and work toward my goals in this particular field for years with, well, almost no reward. But in my mind, I feel like I’ve accomplished a lot. After all, where would I be now without the market research, self-education, and writing I’ve done in the past few years? Even if I don’t have tangible results to show for it yet, my passion for the work and my refusal to think that I may possibly fail (because I won’t; it’s as simple as that) are more than what I need to keep me going.

Andrea, I am sure the ‘just do it’ attitude is a good thing if it’s gotten you results! I really do believe that it makes all the difference in the world. I think sometimes people underestimate the effects of motivation and positive thinking. Negative thinking can really be detrimental and can make a person physically ill, but there’s an incredible flip side in that positive thinking is an amazing tool in nearing your goals and finally accomplishing them.