Doctors and their failing
I came to know today that my old boss is terminally ill and has a few days or weeks to live. This really got me thinking, as she was in the prime of her life and a very intelligent person.
If I were a doctor, I would first set up practice in a country, where suing is not as common as sneezing. Then I would tell certain patients who are level headed, intelligent (able to tell nose from ears from lungs, etc) and decently pessimistic that they have a limited period of time to live. If some doctor did this to me, it would change my very outlook. I would be like GURU with "no time to play, gotta get working everyday." There would be no fears whatsoever. I would quit my job. Write as if every page could be the last chance for a place in posterity. And write honestly, for I will not be alive to see people's reactions or be guillotined, whichever came first.
Before my imminent and false death, my ego would die a thousand times. I would not have time for little vanities. All my energy would be focused on doing all the things I really want to do. I would have no fear of failure or rejection to keep me from trying.
Unfortunately, medical schools do not churn out candidates with the broader outlook.
I came to know today that my old boss is terminally ill and has a few days or weeks to live. This really got me thinking, as she was in the prime of her life and a very intelligent person.
If I were a doctor, I would first set up practice in a country, where suing is not as common as sneezing. Then I would tell certain patients who are level headed, intelligent (able to tell nose from ears from lungs, etc) and decently pessimistic that they have a limited period of time to live. If some doctor did this to me, it would change my very outlook. I would be like GURU with "no time to play, gotta get working everyday." There would be no fears whatsoever. I would quit my job. Write as if every page could be the last chance for a place in posterity. And write honestly, for I will not be alive to see people's reactions or be guillotined, whichever came first.
Before my imminent and false death, my ego would die a thousand times. I would not have time for little vanities. All my energy would be focused on doing all the things I really want to do. I would have no fear of failure or rejection to keep me from trying.
Unfortunately, medical schools do not churn out candidates with the broader outlook.
Work
The newly formed country of East Timor will open for offshore drilling in 2004...a quick note for those in power.
Working two jobs has it benefits...the increased pay for one. I have been working continuously for as far as I can remember. If I can write for a similar amount of time, I will surely be far more prolific writer.
But making marketing plans and writing are two different stories. Success of a marketing plan, I am not too concerned about and this factor allows me to me work ceaselessly while at a desk. On the other hand, before I sit down to write a story, I take a quick look at the company on the table. Oscar Wilde, P.G. Wodehouse, R.K. Narayan and now Richard Yates join me at my desk. "You are an inferior writer they say." If I concentrate real hard I can hear Woody Allen shrilly reprimanding me for too much use of the passive voice. It is very difficult to write a perfect story with so many instructions from so many sources.
The quest for perfection does me in before I have even started.
Confidence and a focus on process rather than end result is key. What is writing? I sincerely feel that it is more about honesty than technique (this makes it different from tennis where Boris Becker might rob a blind beggar and still be able to decimate me). I am henceforth removing these people from my RSVP list till they send me writing samples from stages early in their career.
The newly formed country of East Timor will open for offshore drilling in 2004...a quick note for those in power.
Working two jobs has it benefits...the increased pay for one. I have been working continuously for as far as I can remember. If I can write for a similar amount of time, I will surely be far more prolific writer.
But making marketing plans and writing are two different stories. Success of a marketing plan, I am not too concerned about and this factor allows me to me work ceaselessly while at a desk. On the other hand, before I sit down to write a story, I take a quick look at the company on the table. Oscar Wilde, P.G. Wodehouse, R.K. Narayan and now Richard Yates join me at my desk. "You are an inferior writer they say." If I concentrate real hard I can hear Woody Allen shrilly reprimanding me for too much use of the passive voice. It is very difficult to write a perfect story with so many instructions from so many sources.
The quest for perfection does me in before I have even started.
Confidence and a focus on process rather than end result is key. What is writing? I sincerely feel that it is more about honesty than technique (this makes it different from tennis where Boris Becker might rob a blind beggar and still be able to decimate me). I am henceforth removing these people from my RSVP list till they send me writing samples from stages early in their career.
<$BlogDateHeaderDate$>
