i’ve got so much to say but my little brain is so tired from working. did you ever stop to think just how much time humans in the developed world spend in front of video screens?
take me, for example. i work in front of 3 computer screens in my studio. then i walk out to my kitchen where i keep my laptop and where i check my email/interweb stuff on the laptop screen. and now occasionally for fun i turn on the cable and watch tv on my new flat screen tv. and yesterday i took a break and went to see a movie on the big screen.
screens.
i think i need a break from screens (he says while writing on the screen of his laptop, which, by the way, never touches my lap. it’s my table top computer).
my eyes are getting kind of tired of looking at screens. although i do like just how effective screens are for conveying all sorts of information. can you tell that my brain is shutting down?
so tired.
which means, of course, time to go back to work. if anyone is interested in the reasons why i’ve had any success they are as follows:
i love what i do
i’m happiest when i’m working
i like to work hard.
i don’t know of too many successful people who can’t say those very same things about themselves and their work lives. i see lots of people who aspire to be successful but who hate what they do or who don’t enjoy their work.
i don’t define success in terms of money or record sales or fame or etc. i define success in terms of feeling good about the music that i make and the work that i do.
work is, for me, its own reward. that might sound like a cliche, but for me it’s true.
the feeling of satisfaction that i get from doing good work is so much greater than i could ever get from a year of vacations.
find something that you love to do and do it.
approach your life and your work with passion and persistence. i’ve always maintained that people should do what they love to do, for it greatly increases their chances of being successful. and if you do what you love to do and you never have success with it, well at least you’ve spent your time doing something that you loved.
it’s like rating poker hands:
doing what you love and having success with it:
the best doing what you love and not having success with it:
second best doing what you don’t like and having success with it:
not very good doing what you don’t like and not having success with it:
terrible and to be avoided at all costs. i think that another key to success is persistence. doing the work when it isn’t rewarding. doing the work when no one else seems to care. doing the work when nothing good seems to be coming from it. i had a conversation with steven soderbergh where we were talking about the periods of failure in our lives. now he’s a great success (‘traffic’ ‘oceans 11’), but a few years ago he was directing a play for community theater that seemed to be going nowhere. but he persisted. never say die. to quote galaxy quest ‘never give up, never surrender’ (i’m such a geek. sometimes my geekdom embarasses even me).
even at the worst moments of my professional life (sitting in a parking lot on a cold rainy morning in germany during the animal rights tour when i was ill and my band and crew didn’t like me and we were playing concerts to 10 people a night and we were always cold and no one liked ‘animal rights’ and etc) i’ve always managed, somehow, to perservere. probably cos i’m stubborn. and i don’t know how to do anything else. and, as i said, even in the darkest depths i’m still always in love with music and what it can do. and, of course, the steady grace of god.
ok, i’ve written enough. my tired brain is kind of working on auto-pilot.
it’s 2 a.m and i’ve been working straight for 8 hours so now it’s time to go back to work.
thanks for listening,
moby