The Inspiration Business

“How’s the inspiration business going?” a journalist friend asked me recently at a meeting of a professional organization we both belong to, giving me a jaunty slap on the back and a crooked smile.

He’s from the other end of the media spectrum—news, politics, scandal—and always seems bemused and even a bit puzzled by the fact that there is a company like GUIDEPOSTS out there telling true stories of hope and inspiration from everyday people. The first time I told him what we do, he snorted and said, “There’s a market for that?” So I put him on my subscription list. 

I never knew if he even read the magazine until one day a couple of years ago when I ran into him at Starbucks looking worn and wrung out. His wife was having a health crisis, his oldest was giving him a hard time about college and his company had just undergone a nasty merger. “I’m a mess,” he said. “But I picked up your magazine the other night. My wife loves it. And you know something? The stories made me feel better. Thanks.”

Things worked out for my colleague and he never mentioned the magazine to me again, though presumably his wife still reads it. Maybe he does, too. I like to think so, at least. You know something? I think the inspiration business is going just fine.        

Edward Grinnan is Editor-in-Chief and Vice President of GUIDEPOSTS Publications.