Hugh McLeod announces that after the distraction of well-paid, interesting, rewarding work that’s burning him out, he’s going to refocus his attention on his cartoon blog, for which he makes basically peanuts.
So he’ll be scaling back what’s probably a gigantically sweet deal with Microsoft. Scaling back the sexy, rewarding and highly visible work with Stormhoek. Scaling back the consulting gigs that a lot of us would kill baby harp seals for.
(I am just kidding. Baby harp seals are very cute with lovely dark eyes and I would never kill one, or even hurt its feelings. Please do not send hate email.)
One nice thing about doing truly crazy shit is that it’s almost never wrong. If your gut is so insistent on picking the path that doesn’t make "practical" sense, it’s generally also kind enough to give you a massive whomp of energy to go open about a zillion new doors.
This is not an argument to do dumb shit. This is not "leap and the net will appear." Anyone who’s been around awhile can tell you that sometimes it’s "leap and the bottom of the ravine will appear." If you need a net, don’t leap.
But when you just can’t sleep thinking about that wild hair, your curious monkey mind usually kicks into supergear to figure out how you can make it work. New connections, new business models, new points of intersection. Maybe you can move to Tibet and become a lama. Maybe you can go spend 10 years taking care of AIDS orphans in Lesotho.
Dumb shit, nah. Anyone can do dumb shit, it’s an oversaturated market. But crazy shit can sometimes be the exact right thing.
On Crazy Shit: Harder, Better, Faster, Stonger
I love it. Our monkey brains are cool,
Unfortunately many of our minds are like this monkey, or the ones in this post. If more people would take risks, throw fear to the back seat and take a chance, imagine what cool thinks would happen.
That is quite a leap for him, he has a lot going for him right now. I think ultimately though everyone should follow their aspirations/dreams as much as they can will themselves.
Whatever they may be, as long as they aren’t expecting immediate results and have fall back circumstances readily available.
I love this. It is so easy to get stuck in the shit that keeps you going: earning a living, furthering a ‘good’ career, prestige and other rungs on a broken ladder. The crazy shit is what you remember when you look back. Endless days at a desk, and time spent with people who don’t understand you: none of this is remarkable. Thanks for this post.
Sonia, that’s so cool. Congratulations on your first foray into pottymouthdom. I cannot believe spell check is saying that’s not a word.
I am scaling back too, or rather, not scaling back up after moving. I am going to take a shot at making it solo!
And good luck to Hugh, who I figure has been living on expense accounts for the past year and can probably afford to take two years off…
Stephen, that is great! Best of luck to you. Maine is a great spot for it–I find my priorities get readjusted in a very healthy way when I’m there. (Clearly it’s been *much* too long.)
Cool post. Now to see where he’s at in Texas, changing, doing more art, becoming less New Yorker-ish. Decisions lead to opportunities.
I need one of those whomps of energy.
Peace.
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