Assorted Notes

SATURDAY, 26 MARCH 2016

I am still hard at work editing and translating material that I wrote years ago – in some cases as much as twenty years ago. Some of the material has never seen the outside of a notebook; in other cases the text has already been published in Afrikaans, but as part of the translation process I can’t help revising it, again, for the umpteenth time.

It was therefore a pleasant surprise when I read this afternoon about the American poet Walt Whitman. The first edition of his collection of poetry, Leaves of Grass, was published in 1855, but over the following decades he continued reviewing the material and rewriting parts of it.

Then, in January 1892, two months before his death, he put a notice in the New York Herald: “Walt Whitman wishes respectfully to notify the public that the book Leaves of Grass, which he has been working on at great intervals and partially issued for the past thirty-five or forty years, is now completed, so to call it, and he would like this new 1892 edition to absolutely supersede all previous ones. Faulty as it is, he decides it as by far his special and entire self-chosen poetic utterance.”

Follow these links for more on Walt Whitman and his poetry:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walt_Whitman

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leaves_of_Grass

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FRIDAY, 18 MARCH 2016

Think of a specific problem, and specific resources at your disposal. For example, say you lock yourself out of your house. You look around and all you see is a piece of wire, a broom, a rusty screwdriver and a brick. What you really need is your key, but you don’t have your key. What do you do? You take that piece of wire, the broom, the screwdriver and the brick, and you do your best.

It is the same with making money.

One of the wonderful things about the Internet era is that there are so many methods with which you can generate an income. And therein also lies the problem. It is the easiest thing in the world to fill your bag to such a degree with things you want to do that you can hardly fit it through the train window to embark on your journey to Financial Wellness. As the minutes tick by before the train departs, you know you’d have to unpack some of the items and leave it on the platform. But as hard as you try you cannot get yourself to do it. And so, finally, the train departs without you.

I’m wondering, for instance, what I would do if I only had my English classes, my writing and two other commercial book projects to achieve at least my financial goals for this year. I can’t say for sure if I will accomplish these goals, but one thing is certain: I will do more, and try harder to make money with my writing and the other book projects than is currently the case (yes, even with my writing).

Why do I not do that, seeing that I have just declared what I will do? Because there is always a light that flickers on and off – over there, on that side. “Oh,” I’ll say, “it’s [any of several things I can also do to make more money]. Let me just quickly see what’s going on.”

TUESDAY, 5 APRIL 2016

Tail end of a thought stream: I believe the guy with a grove full of orange trees and nothing else would eventually work out a way to make money with those oranges – fresh orange juice, frozen orange juice, orange peels, bags full of oranges, dried oranges, orange pound cakes …

Would he do better than the guy who also started with a dozen orange trees in his back yard, who reckons it is a waste of time, then buys a few dozen pairs of shoes to sell door to door, and after a month stuffs the unsold shoes in the attic, then does a crash course in gardening and buys himself a set of tools to start a gardening business, knowing that there are other people in the neighbourhood who also offer gardening services and who are better at marketing than he is?

I think the likelihood is greater that the guy who stayed with the oranges would eventually figure out a way to build a steady income.

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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.

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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.

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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

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