Sample chapter from The Pursuit of Life
I attended a conference recently, where respected author and marketer Seth Godin spoke about sharing one’s art. Here’s the advice he gave for authors: “Always learn, always share. Be easily recognisable, often quoted. Be authentic – bring yourself to work. Build relationships, track activity, analyse, revise. If it’s important, do it every day. Learn to believe in yourself. Trust yourself. Do it passionately or not at all. Find your friends – those who share your passion. Always be curious, always seek to learn. Stretch yourself. Just because others do things a certain way, doesn’t make it the best way. Innovate and take risks, to find the best way. Keep your business as small as possible. Be lean and agile. Acknowledge that your work won’t be for everyone, and that’s fine. Allow them to not join the party. If your worldview doesn’t match theirs, then it’s not for them. Shun the non-believers. Plug into, rather than attempting to change, people’s beliefs. Ignore what they say, and focus everything on what they do. This is how you find their worldview – the story they tell themselves. Figure out the interactions – what people do, where and when, and turn up there. Then give them something to talk about that matches their worldview. Go so far to the edge that people can’t help talking about it. Make your art without compromise. Be in sync with the dreams and desires of the people you want to be with. Share freely: by giving information and your time for free – regular blogging, podcasting, videos and conference speeches are the common ways to do this. But connect deeply. It’s better to build strong relations with ten people than mediocre relations with a hundred. Be individual, but don’t compare yourself to others. Instead, relate to them. People don’t like to be told, but they’ll instinctively be seeking to understand if, or to what degree, they relate to you. One’s audience builds in four stages: being aware (curious, discover you on social media, blogs, TV, in print), being engaged (subscribes to newsletters, attends events, purchase books), being a future advocate (liking what they see and wanting others to discover you), through to being an advocate (actively rallying people to support you). This model goes from ‘many to many’, to ‘many to few’, back to ‘many to many’ again. To reiterate: be approachable, be discoverable, share openly (but avoid information overload). Be persistent, get support, don’t just think – do! Be emotional. Be honest. Be transparent. Be true. Share the good, bad, happy and sad. Record the leaps and slumps.” How’s that for concise guidance from one of the world’s most successful and respected marketers?
There’s a mindset that knits all this together. I remember hearing a talk by champion jockey AP McCoy where he discussed the ‘secrets’ of his success. He said, “Stay disciplined. Be positive. Stay focused on what will make you better. Stick to a routine. Study the best people, work with the best people, there’s a reason why they’re the best. Have attention to detail, attention to presentation (especially first impressions), and insist that everyone working with and for you follows this principle and works to the same standards. Build a team around you, getting them to do all the things that would otherwise distract you from your core goal. Work towards long-term success, not being a one-season wonder. Don’t take any short cuts. Want to be different, do and achieve things that others haven’t. Be mentally stubborn and physically strong. Set targets, score the goal, then set higher targets. Prove to yourself and others that the ‘impossible’ can be done. Always be perceived as being mentally stronger than your competition, doing the things that others aren’t willing to do. Be proud of your achievements, as they’re the result of hard work, dedication and discipline. Only ever study your successes. Focus on the positives, think about why you won. You’re more likely to be successful if you enjoy it. Yet fear of failure and doubt, that you might not be as good as you once were, will drive you on. You must keep looking forward, focusing on being better than everyone else. Never stop learning. Seek something new every day. The only way to enjoy it to the full is by winning. Keep looking for the success drug. Be prepared to change. If something fails once, don’t do it again. Your instinct gets better the more you practise and the more your mind gets into doing the right thing. Have a ruthless side. This is essential to be continually successful. Ultimately have belief in yourself – but not arrogance. Dream the dream, then wake up and be self-assured to make it happen. Make winning a repetitive process. You make your own luck. You get what you work for, not what you wish for. Which highlights that it all comes down to a superior work ethic, rather than talent.”
A superior work ethic? I lived this during my ‘lean time’ when I worked 120 hours a week for those nine tough years that led to my escape to Wales. I learned that absolute focus is both a gift and a burden. There’s a fine line, thinner than the paper of a doctor’s slip, that separates being visionary or deluded. And a balance to be sought between work, rest and play. The difference is not just one’s ability and resources, but in persistence, self-belief, and knowing how and when to switch off. This is what I call absolute focus – where I can shut out everything to give my all to a task. It’s what my friend Jorrit calls “Damming the streams”. By closing things off, one’s creative current is channelled to become so forceful that it can knock down whatever barriers might be put in its way. It’s when one’s creative output is greatest and unbelievable things are possible. (When absolutely focused, I can write, edit, proofread, design, finalise and publish a book in ten days. I barely sleep, eat, or have any awareness of anything other than the task in hand. Then, when the first wave of books are shipped to my readers, I collapse and sleep for what seems like a month.)
Absolute focus doesn’t need to last for days or weeks. It might only last for a few minutes. My advice is to use this time wisely. Focus on your output. Ultimately one has to ‘get on with it’ and deliver. But beware the ‘scaffolding’ syndrome where people spend all their time planning – building the support structure rather than using it to build the vision. A narrative is better than a strategy. Just start telling the story. As Elizabeth Appell said, “And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom”. The learning? Overcome the fear of writing by – writing. But be smart about how you do it. You want to be heard. So speak clearly.
My message is, and will continue to be, about understanding the importance of a meaningful and balanced life, appreciating what’s around us and knowing our place amongst natural things. But this can be interpreted differently by different people. I need to be clearer: modern life is moving too fast. We’re not making enough time and attention for us to savour things. Consequently, life’s pleasures are becoming superficial and fleeting. There’s too much pressure on us to conform to the latest fashion or technology. Our lives have become too ‘virtual’ as we stare at a computer, tablet, or smartphone screen. It’s become too indoors based – to the point where society is losing its empathy and interest for the natural world (at worst, they see it as alien, or don’t see it at all). I want people to stop, think and appreciate, to be able to identify and understand the meaning of their lives. I want them to spend more time amongst nature, to love the beauty of the natural world, connect with and understand the nature within them, and to care for both themselves and wildlife. I want us to have a greater understanding of the past, to celebrate so-called ‘old fashioned’ customs and traditions. I want to champion rural living, artisan crafts, organic and ‘earthly’ connection, self-sufficiency and good husbandry of land and animals. Ultimately I want all this to help us understand our place in the world, which should encourage greater individuality and authenticity. We should have courage to be different, even if this means being seen as eccentric by others. If we’re having fun and not harming anyone, then why not embrace one’s quirkiness? (Be the Rebel, the maverick free thinker; don’t be the institutionalised ‘doing what you’re told’, letting others do the thinking for you, Good Citizen.) It’s not going to be without its challenges or challengers, but this is my mission. I simply seek to inspire others to adopt a slower, more appreciative and meaningful life that’s connected to the natural world and understands the life-giving qualities of the soil beneath our feet and the sky above our head. But it’s not a static life. It has momentum. Pursuing one’s dreams and encouraging the hopes and aspirations of others. Living on your terms, provided you’ve defined and understand the ‘why’ behind the terms. Believe in yourself. Be yourself. And make yourself visible.
I’ll be exploring the depths of emotion and heights of imagination. It will be like watching a sunrise. Eventually, as the sun climbs higher in the sky of consciousness, it will blind us – proving that we’re searching too eagerly for the light. The message in the metaphor? That one must know what one wants, but not be affected too greatly by desire. Good things don’t come to those who wait, but to those who make them happen – so long as we appreciate them when they arrive.
Mrs H and I think it will take a while before good things arrive. We reckon it will take another six years for us to get back into the light, to a place of safety where I’ll have done whatever’s needed – on my terms – to pay off my debts, conquer self-doubt, battle depression, and become the honest representation of the person I wish to be. It took me from 1998 to 2003 to undo things, 2004 to 2005 to figure out what was going on, then 2006 to now to turn things around. It will be 2023 before I’m free from debt, when I will have escaped my past and have the freedom to choose my future. That’s twenty-five years from start to finish, though of course this won’t mark the end – rather the beginning of a new chapter. It’s when I’ll be able to step forward as a contented countryman, able to do the things and live the life I should have chosen at the start. How long thereafter to complete the journey? Perhaps another ten years. Too long to say with any accuracy. But at the end, when the building, writing, networking, and living reach their peak, I’ll be living the quiet life in the country, enabled by my decision to fund this lifestyle by writing from my heart and living honestly.