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This is, at its essence, where I think you may be struggling to understand what some of us have been saying.
Yes, it’s probably true that, in order to be financially successful (or, at least, not spending your life living on the brink of bankruptcy), someone who is an artist likely needs to do this. But, what it seems like you’re not grasping is that not every person out there cares about being financially successful – they have other priorities in what makes them happy. And, there are people out there (including some artistic types) have absolutely zero interest in (a) figuring out how to commercialize their talents, (b) being given advice to change how they’re approaching their art / careers, and (c) being told that they are “doing it wrong.”
If they are happy where they are at - fine. Your right it’s wrong to be all “get a life” and all.
But at the same time they shouldnt be all, “oh woe is me, I dont have any money” and expecting you to bail them out.
Or, even just as… or even more importantly… that this applies to all careers.
What, you (the royal “you”, not you, Obi-Wan) don’t think there’s “talent” to running a business? Being a lawyer? Being an Operations Manager at a regional grocery chain? To being a good roofer?
Odd how the same people can look at, say, Brad Pitt and say “oh, you have to be lucky” and then look at Bill Gates and say “I can be that guy!”
I have this same issue with my brother, but he’s not a lazy bohemian artist type. He’s actually hard working and dedicated, but he’s also stubborn and wants to do things his own way. He wants to be a landscape architect, but he’s behind the times. He comes from an era where hand-drawn specs were the norm, but nowadays, that’s horse buggy technology. He needs to learn AutoCad, but he’s unwilling. I got him a laptop with Autocad installed, and told him all he needs to do is search for Autocad tutorials online and watch the videos. He thinks he can just learn it on the job, but nobody’s going to hire him if he doesn’t know how to use it.
At least I managed to talk him down from a 5-page resume to 2, which is still too much. I actually overheard him on the phone tell an interviewer that he used such-and-such style in making his resume. (/forehead slap) I told him interviewers don’t care about that. They just want one page with key words because they have to read hundreds of resumes from other job applicants.
He had an interview lined up on a February Monday, but he skipped it. Why? He assumed everybody was going to be hung over from the Super Bowl. He’s also a devout Christian who thinks prayer and reading the bible daily will help get him employment. I guess he thinks God will reward him with a flock of she-asses, just like Job.
I’ll give him advice, and he’ll consider it and then do it the way he originally wanted. He tends to shut off his ears if he hears anything he doesn’t like. He is now 66. His method hasn’t worked yet, but he keeps trying.
Ok, a little off topic but I feel I should respond to this one.
Do you really think nobody in the world has, or would have, came up with the idea of a book targeted to youth that would have the main character living in some sort of magical world or doing something amazing?
I grew up reading The Hardy Boys, The Great Brain, Encyclopedia Brown, and the Mad Scientists Club which when you get down to it, are similar to the Harry Potter series minus the magic part. In fact one book I once read called The Lemonade Trick by Scot Corbettis VERY similar because in that book and the others in the series the hero used a sort of magic chemistry set. I say they are similar because the youth use special skills and talents to solve problems or have adventures. No their is no Hogwarts, choosing hat, quidditch and such but I still feel the themes are similar. Actually I liked them better because I found the Harry Potter world to be too strange while the other books were set in the normal world and kids can relate to them.
In fact I find Harry Potter similar to “Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory” where you substitute the chocolate factory for Hogwarts.
I was also a big fan of Beverly Clearly, the Matt Christopher sports series, Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House Books, and we also read Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn in school.
Dont get me wrong, the Harry Potter series is good but IMO it isnt really that special and the world would have gone along just fine with similar books.
I could tell you my father gave my younger brother advice/guidance to change his job track to one he wanted him to do.
I guess it worked “on paper”, at the expense of radically changing the kind of person he became. From a jovial effervescent guy doing slightly better than “just getting by” to a morose, solemn, burned-out workaholic, albeit, with more “stuff”.
Success. Got it.:rolleyes:
I think the point is that J. K. Rowling and her family would have been a hell of a lot worse off without Harry Potter, not whether or not the rest of the world would have survived without it.
There are thousands of other writers out there who also wished they had gotten a break.
Why do you assume that Rowling getting her book published prevented those other authors from getting a book published? Someone up thread noted that the publisher who finally accepted the first book is actually able to publish MORE than they were before due to profits from the series. So Harry Potter not only helped Rowling, it helped other authors, too, by enabling a publisher to put out more books.