Category: Old age of my youth – 2016

WEDNESDAY 22 JUNE 2016

Time for something of a different sort.

On 22 June 1986 Argentina defeated England 2-1 in the quarter-finals of the World Cup. Both Argentine goals were scored by their star striker, Diego Maradona. The first was the infamous “Hand of God” goal. The second, a few minutes later, is described as one of the best goals ever.

Here is how Víctor Hugo Morales, a journalist from Uruguay, described the “Goal of the Century” in his commentary (credit to Wikipedia for the translation from Spanish):

“He’s going to pass it to Diego, there’s Maradona with it, two men on him, Maradona steps on the ball, there goes down the right flank the genius of world football, he leaves the wing and he’s going to pass it to Burruchaga … Always Maradona! Genius! Genius! Genius! There, there, there, there, there, there! Goaaaaaaaal! Goaaaaaaal! I want to cry, oh holy God, long live football! What a goal! Die-goal! Maradona! It’s to cry, excuse me! Maradona, in a memorable run, in the best play of all times! Little cosmic comet, which planet did you come from, to leave so many Englishmen behind, so that the country becomes a clenched fist crying for Argentina? Argentina 2, England 0! Die-goal, Die-goal, Diego Armando Maradona! Thank you, God, for football, for Maradona, for these tears, for this Argentina 2, England 0.”

And here is footage of the legendary goal:

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FRIDAY, 17 JUNE 2016

If I have to give people advice about making money, I would advise them to consider their identity: Who are you? (Why are you this person?) Who do you want to be? (Why?) How do you see your purpose in life? (Why this purpose?) What makes you happy? (Why do these things make you happy?) Would you rather sell something – someone else’s products, or your time, your knowledge, your abilities or your experience, or would you rather take a risk speculating on some or other market?

One problem: Few people are ready with answers to these questions.

Another problem: Many people are too easily tempted to do things they shouldn’t be doing; and of course, too many people are too easily deceived.

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SATURDAY, 28 MAY 2016

I have always been an old man. The only difference is, in my twenties I could get away with trying to look young.

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SUNDAY, 15 MAY 2016

I have mentioned this before, but I am doing it again today, solemnly, in public: I am asking myself, pretty please, to not become a fuddy-duddy, a cranky old geezer.

As a matter of course it is mostly men who will understand this plea, particularly if they have reached their so-called middle years.

Middle-aged and older men are known for their conservative attitudes, and in many cases seem to have a permanent bee in their bonnets and a chip on their shoulders. They regularly feel as if their manhood is being challenged. One of the younger generation of men just has to think of doing something wrong, like parking in the wrong place, talking too loudly on his phone, or cutting in line in the queue at IKEA’s restaurant in Kaohsiung (while actually only re-joining his friend), and the old geezer pushes up in a man who a few moments before was just a normal human being. He gets red in the face, his hair turns a greyer shade from pure outrage, he wants to read someone the riot act, and he says things like, “Please! For the love of god, just wake up!”

That everyone shakes their heads and his wife distances herself from him one small step at a time matter little to him.

Even though there are places where old geezers still rule – Saudi Arabia being a fine example, it seems like fuddy-duddies are an endangered species – red in the face from almost permanent consternation because someone dared to do something with which he disagrees, and with a feeling that if the world had ever belonged to him, it is certainly no longer the case.

Now I just need to build up some resistance to my inner old geezer who wants to show his puffed-up face every now and then and wag his finger at perfect strangers.

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THURSDAY, 12 MAY 2016

I just had an insight into my activities in 2006. Perusing the notes of that year it is plain to see, to my great embarrassment, that I wanted to make a quick buck. I obviously fell for the opinion of information vendors that it was easy for anyone to start earning money on the internet without months or years of patience and hard work.

Surely I must have known what the general impression was of get-rich-quick schemes. Why did I fall for it, then? Why – and I have wondered about this a lot over the last ten years – did I not just pick a niche or an interest or a need with a market willing to pay for stuff, and slowly and patiently built up an online asset?

On 27 November 2006 I wrote: “I’ve increasingly come under the impression that I ignore my real strengths because I have until now believed that it will take ‘too long’ to make money from it.” And later a warning: “Beware of going over to the opposite extreme – losing myself for the next few weeks in creative work I would enjoy more, but that won’t necessarily bring in any money.”

Why did I not start building an online business? Why did I not work on a commercial site that could have started generating profit within six months or a year?

The reason, as I’ve discovered, is simple: If I had wanted to work on something for six months or a year before I made any money with it, I would have worked on my own projects. I had temporarily given up on my writing because I thought – or wanted to believe – that I could make money quickly in other ways, to then return to writing, this time with enough money to amongst other things pay someone to proofread my material and perhaps even to cancel some classes and thus own more of my time.

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