My grandfather always encouraged me to make as many mistakes as I could. “Go ahead and make all your mistakes now Kahn, because the only thing worse than a fool is an old fool,” he constantly told me. He also spoke how he never got a good grasp on life until he turned 40. That’s when he effectively began to save money, bought a new house, and sat up the way he would put his children through college. My grandfather had learned how to “follow through.”
I changed majors about 25 times in college. Business, psychology, sociology, computer information systems, english, etc… I also discovered the joy of writing in college. By the time I graduated in 2001, I had written 2 chapbooks and maybe sold 100 copies combined. I should have sold more but the fun part was writing them – not selling them. I would drop books off on consignment at stores and never call or check to see if they were selling.
No follow through.
I then decided to write a 200 page short story book. Again, I took great pleasure staying up late and waking up early writing the stories. I hired an editor for corrections, graphic designer for the cover, and had 500 copies made, sold maybe 100 and the other 200 are still in my garage-lol.
No follow through.
I also once wrote a movie script. It started off at 15 pages and grew to 115 pages. I had money set aside to film it, did a casting call, hired actors, hired a director, but after a few scenes were shot – the project disbanded.
No follow through.
Why no “follow through” on those projects? Half of it were the success of other projects I was doing simultaneously (poetry CD’s and photography) and the other half was I had lost the “drive” to complete those ventures.
Now years later I have learned the proverbial lesson about “following through.” I try to apply it to parenthood and being a husband as well. Like a lot of parents; my grandfather wanted me to understand things early in life so I wouldn’t make the same mistakes he made late in life. Not sure if I have accomplished this but his speeches and lectures never went in vain.
I changed majors about 25 times in college. Business, psychology, sociology, computer information systems, english, etc… I also discovered the joy of writing in college. By the time I graduated in 2001, I had written 2 chapbooks and maybe sold 100 copies combined. I should have sold more but the fun part was writing them – not selling them. I would drop books off on consignment at stores and never call or check to see if they were selling.
No follow through.
I then decided to write a 200 page short story book. Again, I took great pleasure staying up late and waking up early writing the stories. I hired an editor for corrections, graphic designer for the cover, and had 500 copies made, sold maybe 100 and the other 200 are still in my garage-lol.
No follow through.
I also once wrote a movie script. It started off at 15 pages and grew to 115 pages. I had money set aside to film it, did a casting call, hired actors, hired a director, but after a few scenes were shot – the project disbanded.
No follow through.
Why no “follow through” on those projects? Half of it were the success of other projects I was doing simultaneously (poetry CD’s and photography) and the other half was I had lost the “drive” to complete those ventures.
Now years later I have learned the proverbial lesson about “following through.” I try to apply it to parenthood and being a husband as well. Like a lot of parents; my grandfather wanted me to understand things early in life so I wouldn’t make the same mistakes he made late in life. Not sure if I have accomplished this but his speeches and lectures never went in vain.