“I’ve started several businesses. Maybe 17 have failed out of 20. I fail quickly. I fail frequently. Entrepreneurship is a sentence of failures punctuated by brief success.”
The words of a successful/unsuccessful entrepreneur.
It makes me think of joke writing. For “business”, substitute “joke”.
A good stand-up show is all your successes in one place.
With stand-up and entrepreneurship, the trick is to find ways to fail that mean you can keep playing the game.
I got into show business because I hate the honest, ugly, savage, truth of waking up human, knowing that one day that I won’t wake up and those days or moments before that last sentient moment will probably be quite tricky.
The only solution to living with this painful reality is love*, a practice that’s not always easy, which takes a lifetime of work, vigilance and bravery to acquire the capacity to do it.
Of course, love is an end in itself, and the solution to the human condition and so on, but we’re all really busy at “work” due to everybody’s “love” of certain other ideas.
There you go. Truth in three paragraphs, whenever you need them.
Now bring on the lies of authors, songwriters, storytellers! I need a rest!
What’s that? All of a sudden, I’m hearing: Great writing tells the truth. Great fiction tells the truth. Great art tells the truth.
Truth, truth, truth, truth, truth. Ugh.
Surely all this truth needs breaking up with a dick joke once in a while?
Just saying, if you’re now thinking of a rude joke and smiling, treasure that feeling.
My work here is done.
*I’m not being touchy-feely. This is the scholarly definition of love, put forward by Erich Fromm in The Art Of Loving.
…is where preparation meets opportunity.
I’ve been prepared and lucky.
I’ve also been unprepared and unlucky.
Furthermore, I’ve been lucky and unprepared and I’ve been unlucky and prepared.
Guess which one of these variables I’d recommend focussing on?
Good luck!
Hey there. You might be reading this because you know me, or you saw me at a gig, or Google made a mistake, or we’re family, but let’s face it…
I’m a nobody. Good.
Adolf Hitler. Jimmy Savile. Jeremy Clarkson. If history teaches us anything, it’s that Somebodies are the problem. They should probably be banned.
If you’re a somebody and you’re reading this, sorry but it’s not for you.
What’s great about my story is that it’s not: I was a nobody, then through persistence, I met Bill Gates in a lift, convinced him to fund me, and now I own an island. That’s the blog post a Somebody would write.
What’s great about my story is that it’s this: I was a nobody, then through persistence (and luck*), I found a way to do what I love most days of my life. And I’m still a nobody. And there are others like me. Isn’t that great?
If I can do it with all my nobody-ness – you can, too.
Have you heard of the post-industrial economy? In short, it’s this. You’re fired.
I’m hearing the smart people say that it’s becoming vital to figure out how to make it without institutions.
So. I’ll try and be as honest as possible about my experiences here, and maybe you can take something from them. Or add to them. You should ask if you want to know something specific. And take it with a grain of salt**.
*I will be publishing a definitive “how-to” guide about luck tomorrow.
**I will be publishing a definitive “how-to” guide about truth the day after***.
***I don’t even know if I’m telling the truth in this last footnote.
Update. I thought it was more important to do the truth post first. So these footnotes are a bit of a massaging of truth. I think this might be irony.
…is:
Good. (Enough).
Holding out for “Perfect” will leave you unpublished every time.
Christian Reilly 