Toto, We're Not In Springfield Anymore
I used to think I was an overachiever - mostly because I actually made it out of a region of the country where 4th grade teachers still tell their students that the 1969 moon landing was a government hoax.
Then, I moved to New York where everyone - or at least everyone that Sarah knows - is a global citizen, a renown scientist, a lawyer for the Volcker commission, a top tier journalist, a real estate mogul, or a millionaire hedge fund manager with a mansion and an affinity for five star restaurants.
Sarah's newest friend has a house in Park Slope. We went over there on Saturday, watched the kids play together, drank wine, and talked about music, politics and work. The normal stuff - except for the pictures of the friend and Kofi Annan, except for the stories of being in Kosovo during the war, except for the bit about jamming with Ozric Tentacles.
Makes me consider where a more creative route in life could take me...
I used to think I was an overachiever - mostly because I actually made it out of a region of the country where 4th grade teachers still tell their students that the 1969 moon landing was a government hoax.
Then, I moved to New York where everyone - or at least everyone that Sarah knows - is a global citizen, a renown scientist, a lawyer for the Volcker commission, a top tier journalist, a real estate mogul, or a millionaire hedge fund manager with a mansion and an affinity for five star restaurants.
Sarah's newest friend has a house in Park Slope. We went over there on Saturday, watched the kids play together, drank wine, and talked about music, politics and work. The normal stuff - except for the pictures of the friend and Kofi Annan, except for the stories of being in Kosovo during the war, except for the bit about jamming with Ozric Tentacles.
Makes me consider where a more creative route in life could take me...
posted by isaacjosephson at 11:02 AM
8 Comments:
I don't get it. If you were more closely oriented to a creative career path you could gain a higher social status, sense of self-wroth relative to your peers or rather step up to a more interesting set of peers? For most creative people their work is who they are and the byproduct of who they are relative to what they do, success and failure, fame or obscurity, provocative or mundane, is of secondary consequence. Besides, Kofi Annan is just some guy who heads up a failing organization; nothing impressive in that. And who would actually want to be in Kosovo during the war? And I for one would not get within ten feet of an Ozric Tentacle, whatever that is! You're a bright kid from a small town. Don't get caught up in the red-herring that because you live and work in New York you should be better or more interesting than anyone else. Keep it real and if one day you find yourself in a war zone, or next to an Ozric Tentacle, or about to be shot with Kofi Annan, get the hell out of there fast.
First, who are you?
Second, I appreciate your thoughts. I guess what I was trying to get at was that, looking back on my life to date, I sometimes think I made the safe choices rather than the creative ones that would have led me down a more interesting path. In Chiago, I could have made Centerstage Chicago (my company at the time) a full-time endeavour, and eventually gotten 10x what I got when it was sold to the Sun Times. In San Francisco, I could have taken a more entrepreneurial route rather than settled in with the best-funded option. Whilst between jobs, I could have taken more time to explore the world, and so on.
I didn't write it. I bet you were thinking it.
TM
Why compare yourself to others so much? It's totally defeating and makes you come across, well, rather weak.
I don't think I was comparing myself to others so much as engaging in a little idle second guessing inspired by those that have taken a more creative path. On the whole, I'm quite happy with my station. I would never have traded my experiences for a decade on the Wall Street treadmill, nor would I have liked to live the itinerant life of a United Nations/global public service worker.
Speaking of weak, who are you?
I think second guessing our lives and wondering what might have happened if.... is what inspires us to move forward in life, to be MORE of who we already are. Meeting people who inspire us and make us ask those questions is just that, inspiring. I cannot imagine a life more dull where no one left me in awe, or no one left me asking, "woah-- maybe there really is MORE we can do with this life."
I've been meaning to refresh my memory regarding something I heard once about unexamined lives, but I find I'm just to busy to hunt that text down.
-DCM
I immediately thought of the Steve Jobs Stanford University commencement he gave in '05. It was circulated quite heavily at the time--"Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish." It's a very good speech, really.
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