[Necessary (I swear) background story]:
My friend Monk and I share a pet peeve mentioned often in each other's comments we call "You should DO that." What it refers to is the oft-received suggestion that you parlay any random hobby, diversion, or activity at which you excel or which brings you pleasure into a career. Doesn't matter what. You make a lovely and delicious cake for a party, clearly you should DO THAT and be a pastry chef. You knit a mean scarf, you should open a scarf store. You write a bedtime story for your niece, get Harper Collins on the phone! Although the suggestion generally comes from a good place, an appreciation for your efforts and talents, 'You should do that' illuminates the dark soul of capitalism, where one's endeavors--no matter how personally satisfying--have no merit or worth whatsoever unless they're generating income. Not to mention the ignorance of the world of business on the part of the one who suggests it. It's all you can do to not have a snotty retort...Sure, yeah, I'll just quit my job and make rubber stamp collages. Because we all know how easy it is to make make it big in the rubber stamp collage world. You just have to get over to Lew Lord's office and have him write you up the standard "Rich and Famous" contract, right? I'll make an appointment with him tomorrow...
I remember watching an interview years ago--on Letterman, I think?--with Amos of the Famous Amos cookies. Back in the day he was just a guy who liked to bake cookies; for his friends, family, neighbors. They were good cookies too. So good someone suggested he should do that and sell them at local stores. So he did. You know the rest...factories all over the country, a whole cookie empire. The interviewer (again, Letterman?) asked Amos if he ever baked cookies for fun at times, at home. He answered not only had he given up baking, he didn't even EAT cookies anymore. He didn't care if he ever saw another cookie again. He added that he was glad that his cookies had made him a good living, had provided for his and his family's future, but if he could go back in time he would have made his fortune another way. Once his hobby became his living it was ruined. He said he missed the days of a single, hand-made batch coming out of a standard kitchen oven...gobbled up all at once over a gallon of milk.
It was the saddest thing I'd ever heard. Not to mention a real downer of an interview. "There you have it! Famous Amos! A man who hates his life! Stay tuned for Merilu Henner...after the break!"
[end of necessary background story]
That said. Thank you Sarah47@(expurgated).com for asking why don't I host my own home improvement show.
Posted by Antigeist at January 31, 2006 01:06 PMYou forgot to mention the standard response- when you show someone a thing you made and they say "That's great! You should DO that!"- "I Just did!".
Posted by: monk at January 31, 2006 01:30 PMGreat post! Ever think of blogging professionally?
Posted by: TMFTML at January 31, 2006 01:32 PMWhoa! Hold on...You can get PAID to spill bile, prattle on about nonsense, and bemoan your drinking habits? Dude! Which way to the platform for that gravy train?
Hook me up and you're so my hero.
I laughed so hard.
When I recently bought a spinning wheel, 11 million people asked me when I was going to start selling the end product.
That is so cool, you should sell that to the Waldorf School. They love handmade things.
Oh my god, you could make yarn to sell.
I saw some like that in a store and it was like, 45 bucks. You should do that.
I do this because it makes me happy. Why is that not reason enough for anything?
Which is to say, amen.
But I would totally watch your home improvement show.
i like telling people how they are doing things right with their writing, and how they could do things better. and i DO THAT and get paid for it and it is a delight, not least because i spend a great deal less time criticising my friends, because i am tired at the end of a day of compound predicates and misplaced modifiers. but if i did something creative i think i wouldn't sell it, because then you get too attached to the product, and isn't it the process that's supposed to make creativity rewarding? i speak purely theoretically, though; maybe if i could do something creative i would WANT somebody to tell me to sell it, although i think i wouldn't.
anne, who when presented with legos tends to sort them by color and then subdivide them by shape, tidy piles of primary colors.
Posted by: anne at January 31, 2006 03:20 PMI talked with Ben of Ben & Jerry's when he was manning an ice cream cart on the street in Burlington, Vt. He said, "I am going to take over the world with ice cream." (or something like that). I was also a friend of John Sortino in Vergennes, Vt at the time he made a Teddy Bear for his young son, while working as a UPS Driver. A few years later: voila: The Vermont Teddy Company. Now John is a promotional speaker on the fascinating subject of how to get rich doing your own thing. (Or something like that.) I also used to listen to the aggressive fellow who took Barnes & Noble from a schoolbook supplier to its current monolith; he ran the Student Book Exchange at New York University, and you could tell he was going somewhere. Success is a goal itself for some. It hardly matters what the product is. So I don't believe that cookie makers story for a minute. I can't get noticed no matter how much I try. And I am a polymath, can hardly reign in all my talents. And am vain, to boot! Must be my name.
Posted by: Mortimer Shy at January 31, 2006 06:18 PMA polymath, vain...and a *namedropper* to boot!
(Remind me one day to tell you the story of my family's missed ground-floor entre into the Xerox empire, or our McDonald-Douglas/Boeing connection, or how I should be the sole heir to Celestial Seasonings.)
Yes, it seems that fate and a bold desire for riches are the key. Or is it that you try? Have you tried not trying? Maybe all that trying is messing up your chances to be noticed. May I suggest you practice non-chalance. And a pouty face. Adopt the tone of middle class, priviledged ennui. Those McSweeny's cats do reall well with that. They sell like a ba-jillion books.
It didn't hurt Wilde either.
Yes I have tried not trying. That is trying all the more. I know I am hopeless--but it it you who brought it up!
Posted by: Mortimer Shy at February 1, 2006 03:53 AMIt all depends on how you define "success", don't it?
(by the way, I'd totally watch your home-improvement show, but I think I'd rather see "Make Me Lose My Shit.")
Posted by: Vidiot at February 1, 2006 06:47 AMYou can watch Make Me Lose My Shit anytime you want. It's on MTV, called "Boiling Points." A show that hit the air about six months AFTER my post.
Draw your own conclusions.
Posted by: antigeist at February 1, 2006 10:10 AMBut "Boiling Points" doesn't have you, does it, dear Anti?
Posted by: Vidiot at February 1, 2006 11:45 AMperhaps it's my own brand of cynicism, but when someone asks 'why don't you do that?' I hear, "knitting, (or sewing or whatever) is a complete waste of time, unless you can make money at it" goes along with the other reaction to someone enjoying a hobby "oh, I don't have time to do that!"
Posted by: Debbie at February 1, 2006 12:27 PMIt occurs to me also that being good at something you do for enjoyment doesn't mean that you'll be good at doing it for profit- the funniest guy at the party won't necessarily be a good comedian, and when you start producing your craft for money you begin to take other things into consideration besides "Do I like it?" or "Will the friend I'm making it for like it?".
I think this was all implied in your post, I was just clarifying for Mortimer, who seems not to have got it.