A useful reminder about following one's passion:
As I've written here before, I am not a big believer in the philosophy, "Never give up on your dream. If you keep at it and never surrender, eventually you will make it." I believe the person who came up with that also used to invent "can't lose" strategies for the game of Roulette. In any game where there's a chance of winning, there's a chance of losing and in any profession that requires skill, there are those who just plain don't have enough of that skill.
And it might not be skill at writing. It might be skill at selling the work, which can be a separate but equally-necessary talent. Before you throw good years after bad, ask yourself if there's something else you could be happy doing…
This is in the context of writing, but it applies to a lot of other things. In a real sense, the time, space, and money to fail is a benefit of social class. This doesn't mean that people are not happy as supermarket clerks or taxi drivers -- one can enjoy that type of job. But it's rarely a passion the way fighter pilot or astronaut (or, heck, even writer) are.
None of which is to say that one should give up easily -- that would be too far the other way. But if things are not improving and one keeps encountering failure then the individual best decision is to think about ways you could end up happy pursuing another outlet for one's creativity.
Over the decades I have observed that those with the most intense talent in an area usually do not attain the pinnacle of success in their fields. Rather it is those with a slightly lower ability in that area but a broad array of other abilities developed to a very good, but not necessarily outstanding level, who grab the "brass ring."
ReplyDeleteSometimes the key to success for extremely talented people is to stop trying to do it alone and form partnerships with people whose strengths are complementary.
None of which takes away from your point about social class, nor about giving up too easily.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete