‘We Hate It When Our Friends Become Successful’, warbled Morrissey back in 1991 but is it true? Well, yes and no. It all depends on what we define as success. I have a friend, Jerry, whom I have known for over thirty years now and he is a good case in point.
But first things first – it is his birthday today, so HAPPY BIRTHDAY J!
Now where was I? Oh yes, when it comes to carving out a career and putting bread on the table, he is one of those lucky people who knew exactly what they wanted to do, went and did it, is very happy doing it and as far as I can tell has made a success of it. I, on the other hand, have never known what I want to do and still don’t which means that I have drifted through my working life in complete indifference wishing that I could work out where I should be and what I should be doing. So in that respect I do experience a pang of regret when our friends become successful because it just highlights to me that I have failed to make a career out of a hobby like all successful people.
It is only now, that I am starting to get glimmers of what I should’ve done with my life but the bugger is; everything I hate doing earns big money and everything I love, doesn’t – like writing books, or this blog, or surfing YouTube, or well, anything really.
However, before ending this discussion, there is another aspect to consider and that is that for as long as I have known him, Jerry has yearned to be a drummer. He has been, like most of us who love music, a frustrated musician and no amount of guitar strumming was going to salve it. But I am pleased to relate that this has now changed and at the grand old age of forty-something not only has a drum kit been installed at home and lessons taken, he is now playing in a band. This is something else that I have never achieved but frankly, I don’t worry about that and I couldn’t be more pleased for him. The band’s name is Menin Shortz and yes, they wear shorts and play covers and entertain people, which I gather is the general idea. In this respect I have no problem with his ‘success’. If more people were able to follow their dream rather than ‘get a proper job, my son’, the world would be a happier place.
For more information on Menin Shortz, go to their website at
http://www.meninshortz.co.uk Or visit Pete the guitarist’s MySpace page at http://www.myspace.com/meninshortz
which includes some gloriously dodgy footage of them playing some well-known tunes. Rock on!
But first things first – it is his birthday today, so HAPPY BIRTHDAY J!
Now where was I? Oh yes, when it comes to carving out a career and putting bread on the table, he is one of those lucky people who knew exactly what they wanted to do, went and did it, is very happy doing it and as far as I can tell has made a success of it. I, on the other hand, have never known what I want to do and still don’t which means that I have drifted through my working life in complete indifference wishing that I could work out where I should be and what I should be doing. So in that respect I do experience a pang of regret when our friends become successful because it just highlights to me that I have failed to make a career out of a hobby like all successful people.
It is only now, that I am starting to get glimmers of what I should’ve done with my life but the bugger is; everything I hate doing earns big money and everything I love, doesn’t – like writing books, or this blog, or surfing YouTube, or well, anything really.
However, before ending this discussion, there is another aspect to consider and that is that for as long as I have known him, Jerry has yearned to be a drummer. He has been, like most of us who love music, a frustrated musician and no amount of guitar strumming was going to salve it. But I am pleased to relate that this has now changed and at the grand old age of forty-something not only has a drum kit been installed at home and lessons taken, he is now playing in a band. This is something else that I have never achieved but frankly, I don’t worry about that and I couldn’t be more pleased for him. The band’s name is Menin Shortz and yes, they wear shorts and play covers and entertain people, which I gather is the general idea. In this respect I have no problem with his ‘success’. If more people were able to follow their dream rather than ‘get a proper job, my son’, the world would be a happier place.
For more information on Menin Shortz, go to their website at
http://www.meninshortz.co.uk Or visit Pete the guitarist’s MySpace page at http://www.myspace.com/meninshortz
which includes some gloriously dodgy footage of them playing some well-known tunes. Rock on!
2 comments:
Good for your friend! I think people should always follow their dreams... but then again I would say that! Although to get there you have to do some slogging... oh why can't we just get paid to do this and surf youtube?!
If there was a job which entailed YouTube surfing and mooning about thinking of new blog posts, I'd be retired and living in the West Indies by now. *sigh*
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