“I have only made this letter longer because I have not had the time to make it shorter” – Blaise Pascal, 1657.
As the years roll by and the digital world advances that quote becomes more and more relevant to our busy newsfeeds.
Here’s to not silencing our inner-editors so we can deliver chopped, concise messages when we need to 🙂
It was 4th century BCE and Alexander the Great had just arrived in the Persian Empire.
In one of the towns there lay an age old ox-cart, which was tied to a post with the tightest and most complicated knot that anyone could ever imagine.
Whoever was able to untie the knot and claim the ox-cart would become the ruler of the whole empire.
Things were easier in those days…
So. Alexander the Great and his most trusted aides arrived and were confronted by the knot.
They deliberated over it for hours.
The greatest minds of their time, yet none of them could work out how to untangle it.
And then…
…Alexander the Great whipped out his sword and chopped it in half.
Problem solved.
Things aren’t always as complicated as they seem – whether they be creative or otherwise.
Sometimes you need to just chop that knot in half and move on!
Talent.
It’s a great thing, isn’t it? It’s one of my favourite qualities that we have as humans and I think we should celebrate our talents at all times – you know, those little things that we’re able to do just that bit better than anyone else.
Whether it’s singing a note, kicking a football, writing a sonnet or anything inbetween.
Yet, how often do you really make the most out of your talents? How often do you use them to your full benefit?
There are a lot of people out there who are really talented, but they just never pursue it. I guess sometimes they think their talents are too obscure or too useless to really help them in the world.
But, for anyone who thinks that their talent isn’t worthwhile…let me tell you about a man called Tarrare.
A chap who well and truly had one of the ‘worst’ talents you can imagine.
Tarrare was born into a relatively poor family in late 16th century France. But, before he was really into his teenage years, his parents had to kick him out.
Not because they didn’t love him. But because he was, quite literally, eating them out of house and home.
You see Tarrare had an insatiable appetite for food. There’s no other way to describe it. Live animals, loaves of bread and even furniture – he’d eat nearly everything in sight, yet it still wouldn’t cure the great hunger within him.
Tarrare ended up travelling with a bunch of circus performers and made something of a living by eating random objects in front of a crowd. Whether it be animal refuse, blocks of wood or shards of glass.
The military even tried to use his talents by getting him to swallow important instructions and take them through enemy lines. He wasn’t suited to this line of employment though and gave the secrets away to the enemy without too much questioning.
Perhaps it just took one laxative…
Legend has it that he once ate enough for fifteen people in one sitting. Including portions of puppy, snake and lizard. Yet, even after all that grub, he still wasn’t full.
Those who knew him described him as normal size and said that, asides from being weirdly apathetic, he didn’t seem to have any unusual character traits…asides from his appetite.
Eventually Tarrare was admitted to hospital with exhaustation because, try as he might, he just couldn’t top off his hunger.
He didn’t last too long in hospital. They ejected him after he (apparently) started eating corpses…some even say that he was responsible for eating a toddler!
Whether these tales are true…I do not know. But he was thrown out of the hospital. Which is fair enough. I’d hate to be in hospital with someone who might try to eat me…
After that, Tarrare disappeared from the records for a few years.
Only to resurface a few years later and ultimately die of tuberculosis. An autopsy revealed that he had an abnormally large gullet and stomach…but you probably guessed that, I’m sure.
So as you can see, there are talents more unfortunate than yours…now, if you tried, what could you really do with your talent?
The art of storytelling has changed over the years. Constantly evolving to fit and adapt to the new mediums that are continually emerging.
Whether you’re writing novels or telling your brand’s story via marketing, it’shard work.
At times it can almost feel as if the world is against your chances of success…
After all, it’s so easy to start a website or a blog these days, that anyone can call themselves a writer. Whether they can write or not (ahem).
So with the more chattering digital mouths there are around it’s even harder for us to tell our stories. Even the best voices struggle to be heard in a bustling crowd.
But storytellers are still vital to the world. Even if there are more of them. The best ones will stand the test of time, the bad ones (hopefully) won’t.
(Cacofonix, the fictional bard from ‘Asterix the Gaul’)
If it wasn’t for the writers, bards and artists of the past there’s very little that we’d know about our history.
This tale, coming to you from ancient Mongolia, is one that I always use to remind me of the importance of storytelling:
How Tales Originated among the Mongol People:
“Once upon a time, the Black Death descended on Central Asia and began its assault on the people of Mongolia.
Thousands fled, leaving the sick, and as they fled they said ‘We must try to escape. Let Fate decide the Destiny of the suffering.’
Among the sick there was a young boy called Tarvaa. For days Tarvaa’s body battled the forces of death but finally, weak and feverish, the young man lost all awareness of this world. Tarvaa’s spirit thought that young Tarvaa had died.
The spirit left Tarvaa and rose up out of the boy’s body and started the sad journey to the Underworld.
On arrival the Great Khan of the Underworld said to Tarvaa ‘Why have you left your body while it is still alive? Why have you come to my Kingdom?’
Trembling with fright, Tarvaa’s spirit replied, ‘Great Khan, all my family and all my friends who remained in that World stood over my body and said I was dead. I did not wait for the terrible last moment, but simply left on my journey to you.’
The Khan was touched by the simplicity and honesty of Tarvaa’s spirit. He told the spirit gently, ‘Young spirit, your time has not yet come. You do not belong here. You must return. But before you set out on your long journey home, I will grant you one gift. You may choose and take back with you anything from my Kingdom that you desire.’
Tarvaa looked around, and saw all earthly joys and talents – wealth, happiness, laughter, luck, music and dance. ‘Give me the art of storytelling’, he said, for he knew that stories can summon up all other joys.
The Khan then instructed the spirit, ‘Now return home at once. Use this gift well in life, and do not come here again until you have been called!’ So he returned to his body, only to find that the crows had pecked out the eyes. Since he could not disobey the Khan of the Underworld he re-entered his body.
Young Tarvaa recovered from the Black Death and lived on, blind, but with the knowledge of all tales. For the rest of his life, Tarvaa would travel to the far corners of the Mongol lands recounting wonderful tales and legends to his people and bringing joy and wisdom.”
(I first learnt this story in John Man’s fantastic book, Genghis Khan: Life, Death, and Resurrection)
There are thousands upon thousands of articles out there on leadership. All full of ‘important’ yet often conflicting information.
But one thing that most of them agree on is that, to make it in business, you need have a ruthless streak.
There are leaders like Steve Jobs and Richard Branson.
And then there are leaders like Genghis Khan. If you’ve not heard of him, then you must have skipped history at school.
He lived from 1162 to 1227 (which was old for those times) and is most notably known for being the founder of the Mongol empire. He was a ferocious, fearless leader who wasn’t afraid to massacre whole tribes to get where he wanted.
Sure, not exactly a nice guy…but damned successful at getting what he wanted.
As an aside – I always find it interesting that, even though he’s one of the biggest historical figures ever, there’s no official record of what he looked like. Some reports say he was tall and thin, some say short and stout…while others claim that he was (unusually for the Mongol empire) a ginger chap.
But, as ruthless as he was, Genghis Khan had an eye for talent. Which is something any leader…creative or otherwise…should have. And, he was reasonable enough to put this eye for talent ahead of his own personal feelings.
Let me tell you a story that highlights this well…
It was 1201 and Genghis was embroiled in a battle with the nearby Taijut tribe. It was a bloody, nasty business and he was lucky to win.
As the best leaders do Genghis led by example and rode into battle along with his troops and lieutenants.
He was a skilled warrior, but in this particular battle he nearly fucked up.
An arrow slammed into his horse and he was thrown off, he hit the ground and narrowly missed being slayed by the Taijut.
As Genghis Khan’s fortune would have it the Mongol tribe won.
He was furious that he’d come so close to death, and afterwards he addressed the Taijut prisoners and asked them who it was who fired the offending the arrow. Of course, as he did so, he didn’t expect for a minute that the culprit would come forward.
But he did.
A Taijut archer stepped forward and claimed responsibility.
Khan’s initial reaction was to kill the man where he stood. But then, he thought better of it. It was an incredible shot to hit his horse from such a distance…the archer must have been talented.
So, stirred by the archer’s boldness and in awe of his talent, Genghis Khan offered him a job.
He went on to become one of the Mongol’s most esteemed field commanders.
So there we have it. A lesson from history. Don’t let personal feelings get in the way of admiring and recruiting talent. Just because someone doesn’t agree with you at first, doesn’t mean that you can’t reach them eventually.
…don’t you just love loose metaphors?
As a side-note, Genghis Khan created one of the world’s first ever postal systems – so he was definitely more than just a barbarian!
“This too shall pass”.
It’s a simple sentence, but a very powerful one when you think about it. It’s certainly one we should all bear in mind as we trundle (or speed) through our day-to-day.
Many, many moons ago there was a great ruler who lived in a grand castle. He had everything he wanted.
Banquets, riches and the adoration of his community.
Yet…even though he had all he should want he wasn’t always happy…
(I bet some of you can relate).
So, as great rulers tend to do when they have a problem, he asked his most valued subjects to help him out.
He wanted them to create something that would make him happy. For some reason or another he decided that this should be in the form of a ring.
(Perhaps he just opened the Argos catalogue at a random page, and went from there).
He gave them the following brief: the ring had to make him happy when he was sad.
As you can imagine there was a lot of head-scratching – as is usually the case with vague briefs.
They consulted engineers, philosophers, carpenters, academics – anyone who might be able to give them some inspiration.
(oh, how difficult the world was before Google or Pinterest!)
Eventually, as you’ll have probably guessed, the phrase they engraved into the ring was:
“this too shall pass”.
They presented it to him with baited breath…and sighed with relief once they saw that he was pleased.
It worked well. Whenever he felt annoyed, angry or sad – he just looked at his ring and it reminded him that everything was temporary. The storm cloud that hung over his head began to wither and disappear.
But then…sometimes when he was happy, he’d accidentally look at his ring and it would dawn on him that happiness and success don’t last forever either.
It was a real double-edged sword. It could take him from sad to happy, and from cheerful to downbeat.
There’s a lesson in here for all of us to take away.
When things go wrong and when, in the words of Daniel Powter, we have a ‘bad day’ – we know that it’ll pass. The storm cloud above our own heads will eventually go, and the sun will creep up over the metaphorical horizon.
But…
…it also means that when we are happy and when we are successful, those days when the sun seems to shine just that bit brighter and we feel a few inches taller, we need to really value those moments.
Because they too will pass.
‘Tis a shame, but as Frank Sinatra once said, “that’s life!”
Keep your chin up when things aren’t going right, and take every reflective moment you can to drink in the good times when you’re in them.
When many bloggers or cyber writers tackle a theme they start off by pasting the dictionary definition of their topic…why!? Do they think their audience is too silly to know what the word means? Did they not know what it meant themselves? Or, are they just using it as a springboard to help their lazy ass get a creative flow going? My apologies, to quote many a millennial…’rant over’. Let’s get on with the blog post…
Procrastination
prə(ʊ)ˌkrastɪˈneɪʃ(ə)n/
noun
In case you’ve not guessed this one is about procrastination, and for as long as I’ve tried to write creatively procrastination has been the main reason why I’ve not been writing. It’s such an easy thing to do, and an easy trap to fall into…I’ll sit there at my desk, ready to launch a full blown verbal assault on a blank word document, and then suddenly I’ll start to wonder what year Die Hard was released or what happened to an old footballer I used to like once he’d retired, or perhaps I’ll start to wonder how long it would take to fly to Mars in a rocket.
And thus that catalyst for procrastination ‘Google’ will open and away my hours will wile, access to information is great…but it sure as hell can shut the doorway of productivity at times.
Asides from maintaining focus, there’s not really a known cure for procrastination is there? Very few doctors seem to be trained in dealing with it, and listening to TED talks about it only further exacerbates the issue in the first place.
I guess it says a lot for how advanced the human mind is now that we have enough time for such a level of reflection that it can take us away from the present so easily. I mean back in the day, when cavemen and women danced across the far corners of the Earth, I’m pretty sure procrastination must have been nigh on impossible.
The fear of a T-Rex making me into a candlelit dinner for one would certainly keep my ass in check and stop me from googling the full cast and crew of an episode of ‘Friends’ to see if the bit part actor I thought I saw was actually in it!
But yet, as our lives and the worlds around us become more and more complicated, the more scope there is for delaying what you want to do.
So, today I didn’t write because I was procrastinating and, after thinking about cooking dinner for ages, decided to alert the nearest pizza merchant of my hunger and ask them to deliver their product forthwith.
I guess the secret to stop procrastination and maximise productivity would be to make sure I find the right project. One that I simply can’t put down, one that keeps me awake with flowing words until the wee hours. Mind abuzz with ideas.
But…finding that project…that’s the challenge.
whyididntwritetoday.com 