Category: Old age of my youth – 2016

FRIDAY, 18 MARCH 2016

Between 2006 and quite recently I laboured under the false impression that you can do anything if you just know how. You can set up a website – if you just know how. You can write a novel – if you know how. You can make money in any of a dozen ways – if you can just lay your hands on the right PDF that will explain everything to you in seventeen easy steps. You can create your own business you can manage from home – if you just had the right set of DVDs that will explain the process to you. And so I can go on.

Needless to say, I started gathering with characteristic passion information in various forms and from any self-proclaimed tutor who promised hand on chest to reveal all the secrets known only to the inner circle.

Ten years later, I know more than ever. These days I know not only about the European explorations of the fifteenth century or the Byzantine Empire or the First or Second World War, I also know how to make a website in less than thirty minutes, from idea to someone in Paraguay or Zimbabwe can access it and read what I have published (if I can write something that quickly). I know how to make money by doing stuff for other people. I know how to make money by buying and selling the probability that a particular horse will win a particular race before the race has even started. And, frankly speaking, a lot of other things.

But – I have also learned, to my great consternation, that simply knowing how to do something is not enough.

______________________

WEDNESDAY, 16 MARCH 2016

Last night a thought bounced from one thing to another, and before I knew it I had asked myself: What would I rather be, a poor writer or a wealthy entrepreneur? The understanding was for argument’s sake that I won’t do any creative work as an entrepreneur.

It was a tough question.

Ten blocks later (I was on my bicycle) I was satisfied with my initial answer: It’s hard to say, I thought, because exactly how poor will I be, and exactly what will I write?

The implication was that I was still prepared to lead a simple existence for the sake of spending a significant portion of my days writing, but I am not willing to suffer for the sake of an essay every week or two about the weather in Kaohsiung or something similarly frivolous.

I would also like to know how simple my existence will be. I don’t want to sleep under a tree, even if that means losing some good, inspired pieces in the process. (How much will I produce anyway before a transient poet steals my notebook?) Another thing is that I am not alone. Do I expect my partner to suffer with me? Or will I claim that I am prepared to suffer knowing that it will not be necessary because she will take pity on me and share her food with me?

* * *

The thought struck while I was thinking about things I need to do over the next few days for one of my sources of income – a freelance service I provide to a few customers. I thought about how I am willing to do what is necessary to keep the business going as long as I don’t have to stand on a street corner to sell anything.

I also remembered something else I wrote some time ago – about why I should crush any ambitions of starting my own business. Why? I was of the opinion that I didn’t have it in me to dedicate myself 100% to a business.

Of course there are other people who are regarded as successful business people or entrepreneurs who are struggling with the same things as me. Why are they successful? Why do they get away with it and I do not? It isn’t that complicated to work out: they employ people, or they work with people who do what they cannot or will not do.

It is thus not a case of being unable to attain success as an entrepreneur; I am just not working with the right people … or rather, I still try to do everything myself.

* * *

I often wonder what I can accomplish if I write full-time rather than trying to keep a half-dozen income sources running. This is an open question. Perhaps all the literary exercise may lead to a few short stories or articles that will actually be read by more than ten people, and – who knows? – I might make enough money to buy a new bicycle. Or maybe I will be forced after a year or two to take another look at things I had previously considered beneath me, only now with a pair of hungry eyes.

There is, after all, nothing like hunger and humiliation to make you forget your bohemian dreams.

______________________

FRIDAY, 11 MARCH 2016

(1)

To survive, and then to make my life worth living

(2)

To help at least one other person to survive and to help them feel that their lives are worth living

(3)

To improve myself as a person, and to improve my skills and natural talent and thus fulfil as much of any potential I might have

(4)

To write and to publish what I write and have written to date

(5)

To make more money, and eventually reach a position where I would have sufficient accumulated and invested capital to not have to worry about money anymore

______________________

TUESDAY, 9 FEBRUARY 2016

Old geezer thinks about his life, and what he sees is a 25-year-old man. Then he looks in the mirror, and a 70-year-old man looks back at him.

“Who the hell are you, and what have you done to me?” the man asks in the direction of the mirror.

“Sorry, old mate,” replies his reflection. “Time is nobody’s friend.”

______________________

WEDNESDAY, 13 JANUARY 2016

I spent the last few days reading notes from 2010. One thing that became clear was that I had tried desperately to sell things that year – products, services, anything that I had thought or believed people needed. That I mostly failed is part of a less exciting part of my personal history.

Last night I wondered what I would do if I had to sell something now, since I have more resources at my disposal.

I could not say what I would do.

The idea then pushed up from where all ideas come from that selling may simply not be everyone’s cup of tea.

And then the counter-argument: What is selling? Is it not the same as trying to convince someone of something?

I thought: there is a fundamental difference between trying to sell something to someone and trying to convince someone of something. When you try to sell something, you expect that person to spend money both you and he know will be of benefit to you.

I realised I don’t have a problem with trying to convince anyone of anything. And I don’t have a problem with telling someone something is not for free. To talk about money, especially if someone has to give me money, is definitely not my favourite subject, but I can take care of business. The problem is that trying to convince someone to buy something from me feels to me like a form of begging. And when it comes to begging, my pride kicks in. I would rather be struck dead.

I will therefore rather die than to try and convince someone to buy something from me, if I have to carry the story to its dramatic conclusion.

Of course there are situations where I would not feel the desire to commit suicide on the spot rather than to provide service to a customer. If, for example, I work in a hat shop and a bald guy walks in and asks for a good cap, I will show him some caps. Chances are that he may show a preference for a particular cap, which he may admit is slightly outside his budget. In this situation I can see that it would not be too hard for me to try to convince him that the more expensive cap is indeed the one he should strongly consider. I could point out the higher quality, the shape, how well it fits on his head, and so on.

The difference is that he already wants to buy a cap. He walked into my shop. He asked me for a cap. We both know I will be happier if he buys the more expensive cap, but there is no chance I will feel that I’m begging. I would be doing him a favour. And he knows he will do me a favour by spending more money. But we’d both be happy with the deal.

I strongly suspect that my problem is so-called cold selling – to try and sell something to a complete stranger. Or the internet version where you try to convince visitors to your website to buy something from you. (To be clear, they may be on your website because they are looking for something specific, but not necessarily what you are trying to sell to them.)

Millions of people live out a full existence from birth to death due to old age without trying to sell so much as a glass of water or a new pair of socks to someone else. But if you need to do it, or if you have items that are of no value to you and which you would like to dispense of at a reasonable price, it is always good to keep a few things in mind: It is much easier to sell something to someone if what you are trying to sell provides a solution to a problem, or if what the person is buying from you is something that will provide them great pleasure or satisfaction.

I never thought I would be in a position to offer advice on how to be a more successful salesperson, but I guess if you have paid dearly to learn something you can just as well share it with other people.

______________________