A Practical Quesetion

I’ve interviewed Marc Allen, the author and founder of New World Library, a couple times, and have always enjoyed his easy and relaxed view of work and success. His is an interesting and instructive story. At thirty, with a floundering music career, he asked himself what his ideal life would look like in five years. To his own surprise, he realized he wanted to start a publishing house. He had no experience with this sort of thing at all – so little, in fact, that he had to ask the owner of a corner market how a person started a business.

My favorite part of his story, however, was its final detail. He also decided that he didn’t want to do anything before noon, and he didn’t want to work more than 30 hours a week. As a musician, he was used to sleeping in. Plus, he considered himself lazy, and happily so. Working from morning to night held no appeal to him. He enjoyed having ample time to just hang around doing nothing.

I loved this not just because I too am a little lazy, but because he didn’t ask himself what was possible, he asked himself what he wanted, with no limitation. He could have easily thought, “Well, if I’m going to found my own publishing house, I had better make a few changes, starting with getting up early and working late. That’s what people who run their own businesses do.” Except getting up early and working late wasn’t what he wanted, and he was picturing an ideal life.

Adults, unfortunately, have a habit of picturing what’s possible and not what they want. We must be practical. I have met men and women who dreamed of writing but were told or told themselves that being a lawyer or account executive made more sense. It may not have been the job they really wanted, but they did want the security such work provided. This is understandable. Poverty holds very little appeal. Nor, however, does boredom.

If you love to write, you will do so even as you live your practical life. With every sentence you choose in the early hours before heading to the office, you will be asking yourself, “Is this what I want?” At its core, answering that question over and over is all writing really is. Ask and answer it often enough, and you will begin to know the difference, know it in everything you choose, until what seemed practical once becomes a prison cell from which you view a life you want and could be living.

Check out Fearless Writing with Bill Kenower on YouTube or your favorite podcast app.

Everyone Has What It Takes: A Writer’s Guide to the End of Self-Doubt
You can find William at: williamkenower.com