In his own words, Jonathan Fields is…a giddy dad, husband, New Yorker, multi-time health & fitness industry entrepreneur, recovering S.E.C./mega-firm hedge-fund lawyer, slightly-warped, unusually-stretchy, spiritually-inclined, obsessed with creation, small-biz and online marketing-catalyst, speaker, direct-response copywriter, entrepreneur-coach, yoga-teacher, columnist, author, once-a-decade hook-rug savant, pro-blogger and career renegade™…gone wild. Jonathan has answered questions as a part of the Thoughts From series and we’re extremely glad to have him here!

How much time do you spend using social media?

About three hours a day during the week, not much on the weekends.

Do you ever think that social media might be overrated?

I get concerned that people leverage it as the end result, rather than as a set of tools to be leveraged toward a bigger, more strategic vision. It’s also so easy for it to become not only a time-sink, but a life-sink. I’ve found that happening far more often than I’d like, so I’m now deliberately working to repattern the way I interact with social media to better accommodate my desire to have a damn life!

And, truth is, I’ve found the more I step away from screens, the more genuinely valuable content I have to share once I’ve returned, allowing for less quantity, but more quality.

Who is your favorite author and why?

Can’t say I have a single one, because I read in a variety of genres. As general rule, though, I’m drawn to writers like Malcolm Gladwell who turn weaving story and science into an art form. Also, Hemingway. The Old Man in the Sea is something I return to.

Can you name some authors who are criminally underrated, underexposed, and deserve much more recognition than they currently get?

No, and here’s why. These days, as authors, we have so much access to attention from individuals, communities and influencers at all levels. So, if you’re a truly great writer and you’re not getting the attention you feel you deserve, that’s on you.

It may take a ton of work, but if you have the writing chops, the desire and the mad work ethic, you can get your work in front of a whole lot of eyeballs.

You are in control of your own recognition engine. Drive it wherever you want, but don’t complain when you let someone else steer it an ends up in a ditch.

Is writing talent increasing or decreasing over time? What impact has the Internet had on writing skills, in your opinion?

Neither. Talent or lack thereof is just becoming more public. The internet has given everyone with a connection the ability to write publicly. If you have the jones to write, by all means write. If it’s just something you need to do, do it.

But, if you’re writing for attention, it’s not enough to have something to say, you need to have something to add. Because your asking people to pay you with their attention and competing against a sea of others for that most valuable resource.

So, when you’re writing for yourself, do what you need to do to make your heart sing, when you’re writing for others…be the signal, not the noise.

What was the biggest surprise that you encountered when writing Career Renegade?

The biggest surprises weren’t really about the content I was creating, but about the way mainstream publishing works from the inside out. It’s a an old model that’s struggling to evolve in order to adapt to a market that’s changing at breakneck speed on the creation, distribution, marketing and consumption sides. That’s actually why I wrote my Truth About Book Marketing whitepaper last year. There’s so much misinformation, I wanted to share at least a piece of what I’d discovered.

Do you use spell check or proofread yourself?

Busted! I’m terrible at spell checking and proofing. Don’t know why, it may be genetic. I have a friend who reads every post 10 or 11 times before she hits publish, that’s never been me. But, lately I am trying to put more effort into it, since I know it can reflect on your credibility.

Abraham Maslow’s theories of human motivation suggest that higher level motivations like esteem and self-actualization don’t get activated until the more basic needs are satisfied. Do you agree with his theories in that respect? In other words, how likely is it that dirt poor, insecure, and unloved individuals are bitten by the self-actualization bug?

In theory, I agree. In reality, not so sure. People shouldn’t be buying $5 lattes and $25 self-help books when they’re having trouble paying their rent. But, all to often, they do. In fact, I’ve seen a lot of people pursue some variety as transcendence as either (1) a mechanism to remove themselves from the suffering that accompanies an inability to provide basic security, or (2) a distraction from how unhappy their circumstance really is. Sometimes it works, often times not.

I think the quest for transcendence/self-actualization becomes a purer motivation, once your baseline security is taken care of.

Translation, first plug the holes, then build a bigger sail.

Pretend the Internet is destroyed overnight. What do you do when you wake up the next day?

Make coffee, write, create. The Internet is just another tool for me to build relationships, source information and, at times sell my solutions and distribute knowledge. People were doing all these things before Al Gore invented it on a dare and, if it never came to be, they’d be leveraging other tools. I operated for a long time as a brick and mortar entrepreneur before coming online, so I am comfortable creating non-web-based ways to do what I need to do.

Any final pieces of wisdom to impart to our readers?

Kick the tires of life. Just because someone else says you can’t do something doesn’t mean it’s true.