Thank you for your comments yesterday and this morning.
I confess that my curiosity was not without motive.
It began with this article in New York magazine.
Okay, so the article isn't that odd, but the tone of it set me to wondering just how sure New York were of their readership's ambitions if they could predict envy so confidently.
If New York are confident their readers would be jealous of a young author, just how many people out there want to make a living out of writing? New York City is full of publishers and media (Hi y'all), but to begin with in yesterday's comments box, it looked as though if everyone followed their dream the city would be full of writer-owned bars and bookshops, where would-be writers would meet and drink and talk about books.
Bloggers and blog readers might not be the best group with whom to carry out a survey on ambitions, it's true. It's natural that there be a bit of skew towards the literary. So that part of the motive didn't really get me anywhere.
There seems to be a theme in that people want to work for themselves; to own and run a shop or company of some kind, or be self-employed.
That's not odd. I mean, just as it makes sense to stop renting property and buy an apartment or house, it makes sense to want to stop giving the profit on your own work to someone else.
What is interesting though is that people's dreams centre on things which they don't necessarily need qualifications for...and these are the aspirations (I'm assuming) of qualified people. (Edit after Shana's comment below) Of course, to succeed at anything you need to have knowledge, skill and ability beyond the average, or there would be no differential between the sucessful and the average. That's why they are dreams...
On another level I was curious to see how many people are working towards their dreams.
On the flight from Detroit to Amsterdam the other week, Krissa and I watched the movie Madagascar. The zebra in the New York zoo, voiced by Chris Rock, is having doubts about his future:
Zebra: I dunno man, it's the same thing every day. I stand over there, I stand over here, eat some grass, I stand over there again. I dunno. Maybe I should go to Law School?
"What is interesting though is that people's dreams centre on things which they don't necessarily need qualifications for..."
Keeping in mind that I come from a different standpoint than most of the readers here ... I think you DO need qualifications to write.
you don't need an advanced degree, awards, or certificates of completion, but you do need to have written and have written some more. and you need to have written enough to tell the difference between when you're writing well and when you're writing crap.
perhaps less qualifications than experience .. but that experience is crucial if you ever want to take it past forcing your writing on your friends and making them suffer through it.
ahem.
I meant to say something about needing skill or craft which can only be taught up to a point...I'll edit.
Thanks Shana.
that article made me hate him, but not envy him. and i don't hate him for being a successful writer, but for smugly comparing himself to Hemingway. Who does that?
almost everyone i know isn't doing what they really want to be doing. rather, they're not getting paid to do what they want to be doing. they're doing that whole i-like-having-four-walls-and-a-roof-and-also-i-like-to-eat-food-from-time-to-time thing.
also, if you have a free hour here or there, there's a great episode of this american life about people who end up living their "plan B" (rather than what they originally wanted to do. you can stream audio here.
Cheers Stan!
oh i don't feel all that envious of that guy. everything i've ever read about his book (now books) makes me think he probably blows anyway. i think i'd rather be a decent writer stuck in an imperfect job than a despicable author with totally ungrounded conceptions of myself.
plus he's really not very attractive. if you're not attractive, what's the point of living, anyway? exactly.
"Of course, to succeed at anything you need to have knowledge, skill and ability beyond the average"
I'm not convinced that you need to have the skills. You'll need to acquire them by the time you're successful, but I don't think you need them before you start out - it just makes things easier.
Of course, I may revise that opinion in a few months if my lack of knowledge, skill and ability in sales and marketing has meant that my backup software hasn't sold at all, but I doubt it. Even then I'll have learnt lots.
The zebra character was clearly shamelessly ripped off from "Donkey" of "This Is The Goo I've Got" fame.