Or riches, richness, wealth… How is it that we measure this? What makes one man wealthy, and another ‘poor’? The rest doomed to be lumped into the dreaded ‘middle class’?
Certainly by most all measures a person like Bill Gates is ‘wealthy’… I remember a few years ago there was a joke going around about how the government was going to revalue the national numbers like the budget, debt and so on in “Gatesian Units”. One Gatesian Unit would be equal to Bill Gates net worth. It would have sliced at least three “000’s” off the numbers and made them look better to all of the rest of us.
Most Hollywood heavy hitters, large corporate CEO types, successful business owners and such are also classified up there in the ‘wealthy’ group.
The problem I have with all of this is the ‘stick’ by which we measure wealth. The stick, as you know, is money. Either directly, or indirectly, we measure wealth in terms of how much cash, or tangible material products (purchased with cash), a person accumulates in their life.
I’m not so sure that money, or accumulated possessions, are really a good measure of the wealth of a person.
I’d like the chance to actually get inside the heads of some of the ‘wealthiest’ people on the planet and see what occupies their thoughts. Do they walk around in some sort of giddy, euphoric state? Are they simply unable to slip from their happiness high, because the all the cash, or the toys, abates the flow of sadness from their lives?
If that were true, we’d never see divorce, suicide, substance abuse, therapy sessions, shoplifting, drunken brawls, adultery or any of the other of these behaviors in these folks we view as ‘wealthy’.
So then, what good is all the stuff, (money, houses, cars, boats, planes and yes even trains), if it can’t shield you from these life ‘problems’?
I’ve said before, I’ve been dead broke, and fairly ‘flush’, at different times in my life. Several up and down cycles actually. All things being equal, flush is better than broke, in my eyes as having the bill collectors calling and living in fear of losing what little you actually have isn’t much fun.
However, with that said, as I look back over my life, it has never been money, or possessions that have made the difference. Sure, I love to dream about getting a Dodge Viper, or a big fishing boat, building a stellar hot rod where cash is no obstacle, or any of a thousand other dreams. In the end though, it isn’t the money, or the ‘thing’ that I really want, it’s the joy I associate with it.
Cruising the streets with my wife or one of my buddies in a righteous ride, is (or can be) a joy unto itself. More so for me, in something I’ve built, than in something I’ve purchased. I’ve often wondered, why that is. About the only answers I’ve come up with are these two. First, because I built it, it’s unique, mine, one of a kind (like me) and there will be no other exactly like it. Second, no creation like a ‘hot rod’ is ever the effort of one person (well none of mine anyway), it takes some help from some other folks as well. In my case that’s usually my friends.
So as I’ve pondered the ‘wealth’ question, and thought about what my view of ‘wealth’ is, and how to measure, for myself, how wealthy I am, these thoughts started to come together.
You see, I like to think of myself as, and take a bit of pride in being, a ‘self made’ man. Like a hot rod, crafted in a vision to be a standout, one of a kind.
The reality is however, I’m not really a self made man. I’m the result of decades of influence of some pretty amazing (in my mind) people. From my parents, in the very early years, through to today, every person I’ve have the opportunity to meet and interact with has changed me, a little.
Sometimes I saw behavior, or attitudes I didn’t like and chose to try and eliminate them from my life. In others, I saw things I felt had value and attempted to adopt (at times adapt) and fit them ‘into’ my life. In some cases I saw the possibility of something simply because someone else mentioned it, or was just verbally ‘dreaming’ and I took a concept and ran with it.
All of this is much like constructing a ‘one off’ vehicle. You take what’s out there, eliminate some, others are taken exactly as they are and then the rest are ‘customized’ (adapted) into the final product. Some of the finest vehicles I’ve seen are not from shops like Coddington’ or Foose’… but from individuals, who had an ever changing vision for continually modifying and improving their ride.
So that’s me, a human hot rod, crafted from the experiences and people in my life.
To me, ‘this’ is wealth. I’m my own person, purpose built to allow me to enjoy, as much as is possible the time I have here. To provide a smooth ride through the rough roads, fly like a bullet on the smooth straight-aways and handle the curves like I’m on rails.
Occasionally, I’ll over drive myself, and like that hot rod can slip off the road and get ‘dinged up’ if not driven with an eye on the conditions. However, like that hot rod I can get back on the road again as well.
I have been lucky. I’ve had (and have) friends and family with, and without physical impairments, some rich, some poor, hard workers, slackers, drinkers, non- drinkers, all sorts of folks, from all walks of life. It’s this fabric, this gathering of the human experience that’s shaped my life.
I may be a long way from any kind of ‘wealth’ in monetary terms, but, in terms of the value I place on what I have, the people I know, and the world as I look out through my eyes, I have no choice but to consider myself wealthy.
I’ve been fortunate to have a richness that goes beyond money and things. Riches composed of people, family, friends, and experiences that money simply could not have purchased. For that I’ll be eternally grateful.
I’ve spent some time over the past few months attempting to put into words the ‘story’ behind some of the people I’ve known (or still know).
I suspect I’ll be doing more of that, especially over the winter, as for some reason lately these folks are all on my mind.
Life changes when you no longer view money as the ‘measuring stick’, and instead pick some other, inner ruler, to measure by. If you do, you may find, as I have, that you have riches you never really tallied up. That your ‘balance sheet’ is much fatter than you realized.
So tell me, how is it that you measure the wealth in your life?
Saturday, September 17, 2005
Thursday, September 15, 2005
A Flash... From My Past….
Every once in a while, things happen that just make me wonder if we all, really are, connected in some way. A way that's not visible, tangible, but there all the same.
Years ago, I had this friend, now weren’t ‘best friends’ as in did everything together, but we were good friends. We shared some common interests, even worked at the same place for a while.
He moved around 1976, and honestly, I don’t think I’ve heard a word from him since.
Well, recently (as in the past few weeks) I’d been thinking about him. I don’t really know why I’d been thinking about him. Maybe it’s been all the talk about how talent is not always the doorway to success, and that he was the most naturally talented guy I knew back then.
Regardless, I’ve been remembering the great ‘ball point pen’ drawings he used to do. He’d sit, with a blank piece of paper and a ball point pen (like a “bic”), almost anywhere, and create these incredibly shaded drawings.
I’d seen other artists work in ‘pen and ink’, but never with a “bic”, and not like this.
Alan was a very talented artist, but like many talented folks, he still had to make a living. So possibly I was wondering if he ever made a living from his artistic talent.
This morning, while checking my email and deleting the always large amount of spam, there in the ‘In Box’, was an email from Alan Hailston. It seems his Dad had gone up to my Mom and Andy’s to check out Alan’s new website and he'd gotten my email address from them, and then sent it to Alan.
We’ve been emailing off and on all day, getting caught up on what we’ve done over the years, and talking about us all getting together.
If you should go to his website, be sure to check out this section as he uploaded these examples of his ball point pen work so I could see them.
I’m hoping Maryan is feeling well enough to travel soon, and that we can find a good time for us all to get together, hang out and swap some stories. It’s been far to long, and this reconnection too big a surprise to let it slip by.
It’s funny what you remember about folks…. I obviously remember his drawing ability.
He was also a very creative ‘Ad Man’ and while he and I worked at National Auto together he really did some amazing print ads. It turns out that he continued in the advertising business after leaving National and today has his own Ad agency on Virginia Beach, Va.
Another of the other things I remember was his ‘Nova’, now it wasn’t the ‘baddest’ car on the streets locally, but he wanted it to look sharp and I remember working with him on the pin striping layouts. Amazingly enough, in his original email, he mentioned he recalled that and how I’d helped.
I wonder sometimes, about the universe and how things come to pass. Here I was, thinking about him and out of the blue, along comes that email.
I’ve been thinking all day about how many times in my life, that kind of thing has happened. Where I’ve been wishing for something, thinking about something, or in general, just had something in particular on my mind, and how often the next thing I knew, there it was, right in front of me.
Is it all just ‘Universal Coincidence’? Is it just the mere randomness and chaos of life coming together, on occasion, and looking like it’s something more?
I know, I’ve written about this before and pondered about how things seem to happen, just because, when you’re ready for them, and not because you’ve specifically done anything special to ‘make’ it happen.
Maybe I did something recently that charged up the karma wheel, or it’s all just random happenings… I really don’t know. What I do know is that I’m glad he sent that email, and we’re back in contact again!!
Years ago, I had this friend, now weren’t ‘best friends’ as in did everything together, but we were good friends. We shared some common interests, even worked at the same place for a while.
He moved around 1976, and honestly, I don’t think I’ve heard a word from him since.
Well, recently (as in the past few weeks) I’d been thinking about him. I don’t really know why I’d been thinking about him. Maybe it’s been all the talk about how talent is not always the doorway to success, and that he was the most naturally talented guy I knew back then.
Regardless, I’ve been remembering the great ‘ball point pen’ drawings he used to do. He’d sit, with a blank piece of paper and a ball point pen (like a “bic”), almost anywhere, and create these incredibly shaded drawings.
I’d seen other artists work in ‘pen and ink’, but never with a “bic”, and not like this.
Alan was a very talented artist, but like many talented folks, he still had to make a living. So possibly I was wondering if he ever made a living from his artistic talent.
This morning, while checking my email and deleting the always large amount of spam, there in the ‘In Box’, was an email from Alan Hailston. It seems his Dad had gone up to my Mom and Andy’s to check out Alan’s new website and he'd gotten my email address from them, and then sent it to Alan.
We’ve been emailing off and on all day, getting caught up on what we’ve done over the years, and talking about us all getting together.
If you should go to his website, be sure to check out this section as he uploaded these examples of his ball point pen work so I could see them.
I’m hoping Maryan is feeling well enough to travel soon, and that we can find a good time for us all to get together, hang out and swap some stories. It’s been far to long, and this reconnection too big a surprise to let it slip by.
It’s funny what you remember about folks…. I obviously remember his drawing ability.
He was also a very creative ‘Ad Man’ and while he and I worked at National Auto together he really did some amazing print ads. It turns out that he continued in the advertising business after leaving National and today has his own Ad agency on Virginia Beach, Va.
Another of the other things I remember was his ‘Nova’, now it wasn’t the ‘baddest’ car on the streets locally, but he wanted it to look sharp and I remember working with him on the pin striping layouts. Amazingly enough, in his original email, he mentioned he recalled that and how I’d helped.
I wonder sometimes, about the universe and how things come to pass. Here I was, thinking about him and out of the blue, along comes that email.
I’ve been thinking all day about how many times in my life, that kind of thing has happened. Where I’ve been wishing for something, thinking about something, or in general, just had something in particular on my mind, and how often the next thing I knew, there it was, right in front of me.
Is it all just ‘Universal Coincidence’? Is it just the mere randomness and chaos of life coming together, on occasion, and looking like it’s something more?
I know, I’ve written about this before and pondered about how things seem to happen, just because, when you’re ready for them, and not because you’ve specifically done anything special to ‘make’ it happen.
Maybe I did something recently that charged up the karma wheel, or it’s all just random happenings… I really don’t know. What I do know is that I’m glad he sent that email, and we’re back in contact again!!
Tuesday, September 13, 2005
Mixed messages…
This afternoon, I got two emails back to back…
The first informed me that my project manager would like to talk with me (which probably means negotiate with me) for another 1 year contract.
The second, literally about a minute later, let’s all the team members I’ve been working with know that in October, November and December all the reports, downloads etc… have to be performed without my assistance. (Which would be normal procedure for the end of a contract period)…
Now some folks might think bad things when they see an email like that. They might think there’s an intention here to be certain the company can ‘get along’ without them.
I, on the other hand, am thinking she’s got some new project in mind, and wants to be sure I’m not going to be distracted by what should be a production process once the new contract period starts.
One of my colleagues tells me I’m crazy. I may be, but probably not about this. I’ve mentioned before that my project manager is a good manager, and she is. She’s far too good a manager to justify having me in the budget, just to baby-sit an existing process that should be 99% automatic month to month.
What do I think this next project might be? I don’t really know. Possibly convert all the string comparison work I did with Levinshtein, MetaPhone, NYSIIS and Jaro-Winkler into Java or COBOL, but that wouldn’t justify a 12 month gig.
My guess is that it’s something else, that I’m not even aware of yet. Then again, my friend could be right, I might just be crazy.
I should know more next week when she and I talk, I’ll certainly let you all know, when I do.
I’ve been working tonight on adding some SQL and a revised report to the project I did for that insurance company in Greensboro last year. I’ve been promising to ‘get to it’ for a while now, but due to the work load on the present contract, stuff around the house, and a compelling need to ‘relax’ lately I just haven’t gotten to it.
I’d forgotten how hard it is to shift from one development environment to another. If I’m going to continue to try and develop in both .Net and VFP (Visual FoxPro) I’m going to have to set aside a few hours every week to work in the environment I’m not working in the rest of the week. Development skills get rusty far too fast, or at least mine do.
That’s about it from here today, it’s been a long day and 4:30am comes pretty early. So far, Ophelia hasn’t created much of a stir this far inland. We had some strong breezes, and some light rain late this afternoon, but nothing much at all so far. I’m not anticipating much either. It appears to me that this storm will dump a lot of rain from Raleigh east, but points west of Raleigh won’t see much other than the occasional rain shower… I guess we’ll know by this time tomorrow.
The first informed me that my project manager would like to talk with me (which probably means negotiate with me) for another 1 year contract.
The second, literally about a minute later, let’s all the team members I’ve been working with know that in October, November and December all the reports, downloads etc… have to be performed without my assistance. (Which would be normal procedure for the end of a contract period)…
Now some folks might think bad things when they see an email like that. They might think there’s an intention here to be certain the company can ‘get along’ without them.
I, on the other hand, am thinking she’s got some new project in mind, and wants to be sure I’m not going to be distracted by what should be a production process once the new contract period starts.
One of my colleagues tells me I’m crazy. I may be, but probably not about this. I’ve mentioned before that my project manager is a good manager, and she is. She’s far too good a manager to justify having me in the budget, just to baby-sit an existing process that should be 99% automatic month to month.
What do I think this next project might be? I don’t really know. Possibly convert all the string comparison work I did with Levinshtein, MetaPhone, NYSIIS and Jaro-Winkler into Java or COBOL, but that wouldn’t justify a 12 month gig.
My guess is that it’s something else, that I’m not even aware of yet. Then again, my friend could be right, I might just be crazy.
I should know more next week when she and I talk, I’ll certainly let you all know, when I do.
I’ve been working tonight on adding some SQL and a revised report to the project I did for that insurance company in Greensboro last year. I’ve been promising to ‘get to it’ for a while now, but due to the work load on the present contract, stuff around the house, and a compelling need to ‘relax’ lately I just haven’t gotten to it.
I’d forgotten how hard it is to shift from one development environment to another. If I’m going to continue to try and develop in both .Net and VFP (Visual FoxPro) I’m going to have to set aside a few hours every week to work in the environment I’m not working in the rest of the week. Development skills get rusty far too fast, or at least mine do.
That’s about it from here today, it’s been a long day and 4:30am comes pretty early. So far, Ophelia hasn’t created much of a stir this far inland. We had some strong breezes, and some light rain late this afternoon, but nothing much at all so far. I’m not anticipating much either. It appears to me that this storm will dump a lot of rain from Raleigh east, but points west of Raleigh won’t see much other than the occasional rain shower… I guess we’ll know by this time tomorrow.
Monday, September 12, 2005
A look back…
Today, I did something a little different (for me), I looked through the ‘tub’ of pictures Maryan and I have accumulated since we’ve been together. You know those ‘Rubbermaid’ tubs, the ones about 30 inches long, 18 inches wide and about as tall?
Well we have one of those tubs that and it’s just full of pictures. I’d forgotten we’d taken many of them, but each one took me back to that exact moment in time, and brought back the smiles and laughter we’ve shared over the past six years.
I started going though it to look for some pictures to scan to go with some posts I’ve been working on. But, like many things with me, the original goal got lost somewhere between our first Thanksgiving here, and the first snowfall. After that I was on a three or four hour trip through time.
I got reminded of how our place looked then, how it looks now, and the transition it’s been getting to “here”.
Also, I saw dozens of pictures of Maryan, her eyes bright, they used to actually ‘sparkle’ when the light hit them, I kid you not. It was one of the very first things I noticed about her when we met. They don’t sparkle as much these days. It’s not her fault, and I’m sure they’ll sparkle all the time again soon, but her struggles with back pain have really taken their toll on her.
I see glimmers of that sparkle all the time, and her smile is the same, when the pain is absent. Fortunately, since the surgery it’s gone for longer periods of time now, but it always seems to return, just as she’s beginning to ‘believe’ it could be gone for good.
I don’t know how she keeps from letting this drag her into a ‘funk’, but she hasn’t, today she wanted to go to the small local ‘market’ where we bought some fall Mum’s for the front steps. It’s a September tradition with us that got started when I surprised her with 5 or six plants while we were in the middle of our renovations here that first year.
Every year after that, she’s made a point of us going somewhere to get another group of plants. Then, after they’ve finished blooming, we go out, and plant them in one of the flower beds. Not all of them survive, but usually one or two do, for another season or two.
I saw pictures of our ‘landscape’ project that first fall, those plants looked so small and frail in the pictures, today, they’ve grown and are badly in need of a trim as I write this.
Our relationship has grown too. We’ve seen, and been through a lot the past six years. There were three surgeries for her, and two for me, a bundle of struggles with her kids, and family problems on my side as well. Between her surgeries and mine, we’ve not had time, health or money for one of our favorite pastimes, motorcycling. For both of us it’s an escape from the day to day and each of our trips was an adventure in and of itself.
I’ve discovered something along the way though. She is definitely a person I can just hang out with. We can be in the same room, yet not feel the need to be in constant conversation. Yet, when the mood strikes us, we can talk for hours and hours, about nothing in particular. We’re our own ‘best entertainment’. Not to mention she'll listen to my 'stories' no matter how many times I've told them before.
I nearly got lost in the pictures of our trip to the Rockies. Each of those pictures, while beautiful, didn’t come close to capturing the beauty of that place, or the great time she and I had ‘just exploring’ the area. We got so caught up in enjoying the scenery and discovering more places to be, we kept heading south, and before we knew it we’d ridden all the way to Taos, New Mexico.
That hadn’t been in our plan, we actually had to stop, buy a couple of maps and plot a route home it was so far off our original plan. But, if that hadn’t happened, we would have missed the sudden, and incredibly intense, summer storm in Guymon, Oklahoma where we ‘weathered’ the storm in a picnic shelter. The deer darting across the road in the fog about ten miles east of Taos, or any of a dozen other experiences we had on the ride home.
I found all the pictures from our wedding and subsequent bike trip. Maryan had them all organized, in photo pages, with a little story for each page and picture. Finding that, actually brought a tear to my eye, that she’d done that, and, when I went to tell her how nice it was, she’d actually forgotten she’d done it! I’m going to have to pick up a binder for those pages; they do not belong in that ‘tub’!!
I’m going to save further details, and the rest of the pictures for future posts. But, I want to leave you with this thought.
We often don’t know, at the moment, which moments are going to end up being the most treasured. (My thanks to Mitch’s wife Debbie for making that statement when we were up there visiting).
I have a ton of photo memories, but I have 1000 times that in mental memories that no ‘picture’ exists. If you haven’t already, buy an inexpensive digital camera, and take pictures!! I’m going to look into having all of these converted to digital images so I’ll have them and can store them somewhere they’ll never get lost, stolen or destroyed.
One other thing, I’m going to find a digital camera that will take a ‘panoramic’ mode picture. The one I currently have is great, but it’s missing that feature. If you like taking pictures of mountains, great vistas, etc… you’ll miss this if you’ve ever had it.
While Maryan’s recovery from her recent back surgery is foremost in both her, and my, mind at the moment, we couldn’t help thinking today, that despite the problems of the past six years, we’ve been truly blessed in having each other, and the wonderful adventures we’ve had.
Well we have one of those tubs that and it’s just full of pictures. I’d forgotten we’d taken many of them, but each one took me back to that exact moment in time, and brought back the smiles and laughter we’ve shared over the past six years.
I started going though it to look for some pictures to scan to go with some posts I’ve been working on. But, like many things with me, the original goal got lost somewhere between our first Thanksgiving here, and the first snowfall. After that I was on a three or four hour trip through time.
I got reminded of how our place looked then, how it looks now, and the transition it’s been getting to “here”.
Also, I saw dozens of pictures of Maryan, her eyes bright, they used to actually ‘sparkle’ when the light hit them, I kid you not. It was one of the very first things I noticed about her when we met. They don’t sparkle as much these days. It’s not her fault, and I’m sure they’ll sparkle all the time again soon, but her struggles with back pain have really taken their toll on her.
I see glimmers of that sparkle all the time, and her smile is the same, when the pain is absent. Fortunately, since the surgery it’s gone for longer periods of time now, but it always seems to return, just as she’s beginning to ‘believe’ it could be gone for good.
I don’t know how she keeps from letting this drag her into a ‘funk’, but she hasn’t, today she wanted to go to the small local ‘market’ where we bought some fall Mum’s for the front steps. It’s a September tradition with us that got started when I surprised her with 5 or six plants while we were in the middle of our renovations here that first year.
Every year after that, she’s made a point of us going somewhere to get another group of plants. Then, after they’ve finished blooming, we go out, and plant them in one of the flower beds. Not all of them survive, but usually one or two do, for another season or two.
I saw pictures of our ‘landscape’ project that first fall, those plants looked so small and frail in the pictures, today, they’ve grown and are badly in need of a trim as I write this.
Our relationship has grown too. We’ve seen, and been through a lot the past six years. There were three surgeries for her, and two for me, a bundle of struggles with her kids, and family problems on my side as well. Between her surgeries and mine, we’ve not had time, health or money for one of our favorite pastimes, motorcycling. For both of us it’s an escape from the day to day and each of our trips was an adventure in and of itself.
I’ve discovered something along the way though. She is definitely a person I can just hang out with. We can be in the same room, yet not feel the need to be in constant conversation. Yet, when the mood strikes us, we can talk for hours and hours, about nothing in particular. We’re our own ‘best entertainment’. Not to mention she'll listen to my 'stories' no matter how many times I've told them before.
I nearly got lost in the pictures of our trip to the Rockies. Each of those pictures, while beautiful, didn’t come close to capturing the beauty of that place, or the great time she and I had ‘just exploring’ the area. We got so caught up in enjoying the scenery and discovering more places to be, we kept heading south, and before we knew it we’d ridden all the way to Taos, New Mexico.
That hadn’t been in our plan, we actually had to stop, buy a couple of maps and plot a route home it was so far off our original plan. But, if that hadn’t happened, we would have missed the sudden, and incredibly intense, summer storm in Guymon, Oklahoma where we ‘weathered’ the storm in a picnic shelter. The deer darting across the road in the fog about ten miles east of Taos, or any of a dozen other experiences we had on the ride home.
I found all the pictures from our wedding and subsequent bike trip. Maryan had them all organized, in photo pages, with a little story for each page and picture. Finding that, actually brought a tear to my eye, that she’d done that, and, when I went to tell her how nice it was, she’d actually forgotten she’d done it! I’m going to have to pick up a binder for those pages; they do not belong in that ‘tub’!!
I’m going to save further details, and the rest of the pictures for future posts. But, I want to leave you with this thought.
We often don’t know, at the moment, which moments are going to end up being the most treasured. (My thanks to Mitch’s wife Debbie for making that statement when we were up there visiting).
I have a ton of photo memories, but I have 1000 times that in mental memories that no ‘picture’ exists. If you haven’t already, buy an inexpensive digital camera, and take pictures!! I’m going to look into having all of these converted to digital images so I’ll have them and can store them somewhere they’ll never get lost, stolen or destroyed.
One other thing, I’m going to find a digital camera that will take a ‘panoramic’ mode picture. The one I currently have is great, but it’s missing that feature. If you like taking pictures of mountains, great vistas, etc… you’ll miss this if you’ve ever had it.
While Maryan’s recovery from her recent back surgery is foremost in both her, and my, mind at the moment, we couldn’t help thinking today, that despite the problems of the past six years, we’ve been truly blessed in having each other, and the wonderful adventures we’ve had.
Sunday, September 11, 2005
Sometimes…
The road to achieving a dream can be less than clear.
After I wrote yesterday’s post, I started thinking about ‘why’ the writing dream has remained so elusive for me.
I think, I may have stumbled over what’s been holding me back. It has to do with the way I approach problems and the resultant solution(s). I use a method I call ‘divide and conquer’. In short it involves taking all the known components, breaking them into discrete little tasks, organizing them, and starting in on the entire project.
I’ve used it in nearly every single activity of my life; as far back as I can remember. It’s served me incredibly well in the software development arena, and in most of my other ‘careers’ as well.
This writing dream however is a bit more, let’s say “fuzzy”, though. The writing part seems simple enough, once I get an idea in my head; the words seem to come along fairly well. It’s the ‘what to do with the words’ part that I find so perplexing.
You see, in everything else I’ve done, I had an assigned task first, the resolution second, and the delivery (and the money) last. In writing, it appears you deliver first, and then have to locate a ‘market’ for the deliverable, and last (hopefully) receive payment for your efforts.
Getting these first two articles published was fairly easy. I simply contacted the editor directly (someone I met gave me her email address), she sent me the editorial calendar and suggested I write something that would tie in with the various themes. I wrote two articles, she accepted both of them. (Task, resolution, delivery)
That process fit in with everything I already knew.
This new process, well how to begin it, is far less than clear to me. Many publishers only accept certain genres of work, others will accept many types of writing, but how they decide what’s ‘marketable’ is very unclear. No one ‘needs’ a book, it’s a luxury, an entertainment product, something I have zero experience in understanding.
What separates the selected work, from all the rest? What sorts of writing is more likely to ‘catch the eye’ of a potential publisher? What kind of living can I realistically hope to earn as a writer (assuming of course someone actually buys something I’ve written)?
That’s a lot of unanswered questions for me. I’ve always answered all the questions first, acted second. I wonder now, should I just write what’s in my head and then, look for a publisher? Or, research the market, find a topic someone is paying for, that peaks my interest and write something to submit? Or, some other avenue I’ve not considered yet?
My personality (an ENTP for those of you familiar with such things) is one of wanting ‘data’, information (and too much is not enough) with which to make these sorts of decisions. I’m beginning to believe that my inability to act on this is rooted in the fact I can’t seem to gather enough of the right information.
It’s frustrating as well, I search, google, yahoo… whatever... and I find an overwhelming amount of information, none of it specific enough for me to act on.
So, I’m reaching out to you folks, my readers, for some answers.
You’ve read my stories, thoughts and ideas, and so on… where do you think I should go to find a market? Magazines you read, publishers you may know of that publish these sort of “life’s moment’s” compilations… Honestly, anything, anywhere, you think I could turn to find a place suited to my style.
I promise, I’ll run down every lead y’all give me, and let you know the results.
Thanks again for stopping by, feel free to leave me a comment, I really do enjoy knowing what you think!
After I wrote yesterday’s post, I started thinking about ‘why’ the writing dream has remained so elusive for me.
I think, I may have stumbled over what’s been holding me back. It has to do with the way I approach problems and the resultant solution(s). I use a method I call ‘divide and conquer’. In short it involves taking all the known components, breaking them into discrete little tasks, organizing them, and starting in on the entire project.
I’ve used it in nearly every single activity of my life; as far back as I can remember. It’s served me incredibly well in the software development arena, and in most of my other ‘careers’ as well.
This writing dream however is a bit more, let’s say “fuzzy”, though. The writing part seems simple enough, once I get an idea in my head; the words seem to come along fairly well. It’s the ‘what to do with the words’ part that I find so perplexing.
You see, in everything else I’ve done, I had an assigned task first, the resolution second, and the delivery (and the money) last. In writing, it appears you deliver first, and then have to locate a ‘market’ for the deliverable, and last (hopefully) receive payment for your efforts.
Getting these first two articles published was fairly easy. I simply contacted the editor directly (someone I met gave me her email address), she sent me the editorial calendar and suggested I write something that would tie in with the various themes. I wrote two articles, she accepted both of them. (Task, resolution, delivery)
That process fit in with everything I already knew.
This new process, well how to begin it, is far less than clear to me. Many publishers only accept certain genres of work, others will accept many types of writing, but how they decide what’s ‘marketable’ is very unclear. No one ‘needs’ a book, it’s a luxury, an entertainment product, something I have zero experience in understanding.
What separates the selected work, from all the rest? What sorts of writing is more likely to ‘catch the eye’ of a potential publisher? What kind of living can I realistically hope to earn as a writer (assuming of course someone actually buys something I’ve written)?
That’s a lot of unanswered questions for me. I’ve always answered all the questions first, acted second. I wonder now, should I just write what’s in my head and then, look for a publisher? Or, research the market, find a topic someone is paying for, that peaks my interest and write something to submit? Or, some other avenue I’ve not considered yet?
My personality (an ENTP for those of you familiar with such things) is one of wanting ‘data’, information (and too much is not enough) with which to make these sorts of decisions. I’m beginning to believe that my inability to act on this is rooted in the fact I can’t seem to gather enough of the right information.
It’s frustrating as well, I search, google, yahoo… whatever... and I find an overwhelming amount of information, none of it specific enough for me to act on.
So, I’m reaching out to you folks, my readers, for some answers.
You’ve read my stories, thoughts and ideas, and so on… where do you think I should go to find a market? Magazines you read, publishers you may know of that publish these sort of “life’s moment’s” compilations… Honestly, anything, anywhere, you think I could turn to find a place suited to my style.
I promise, I’ll run down every lead y’all give me, and let you know the results.
Thanks again for stopping by, feel free to leave me a comment, I really do enjoy knowing what you think!
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