Influential Reading

Like many readers, there are stand-out books that have influenced my life significantly. Ignoring the obvious answers of In Deep Dark Wood and Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (my first favourite book, and the first book in a series that would get me hooked on books), the fiction options dwindle significantly.

Darren Shan's Cirque du Freak threw me into his books quickly, which lead to his overall influence on my life. That was important for me, at age 12, to find a new series that I could read, a new author whose books I adored.

But the non-fiction is where the biggest changes have occurred in the past few years.

When I got my hands on Tim Ferriss's The Four-Hour Work Week, it opened up my mind to the idea that I didn't necessarily have to live a standard life. I didn't have to restrict myself to the idea of working a 9-5 job, if it ever came down to that.

However, it wasn't a full set of answers.

It was Americanised. It presumed prior knowledge or prior work experience. It presumed that I wanted to live my life in a particular way, and it avoided one very important issue: how did I want to earn a living?

While Ferriss's idea of a four-hour work week was appealing (except, you know, if you get paid by the hour), it wasn't for me. I didn't want to set up or own a business I didn't believe in. I would rather work 40 hours at something I loved and could talk about passionately than to do four hours of maintenance per week on a business that was just a source of income.

I couldn't sell the idea to myself.

When I read Nicholas Lovell's The Curve, things changed. I had a model to follow a little more closely. I could see how I could run a business I loved, on a time-scale similar to that Ferriss presented. I could see the value of free, I could see how what I wanted to do in life could be both fun and profitable.

I was almost there.

I had a near-ideal model. I had an explanation of how that model might work for me. All I needed was something to make that model make sense to me passionately.

Enter Syd Field's Screenplay.

I know what you might be thinking. That's not a business book. Hollywood is incredibly competitive. Blah-blah-blah. It's a dream. It's an aspiration. It's something to strive for. But that wasn't all I got out of the book.

I could see myself using his teachings. I could see my craft explode in front of me - not into nothingness, but into something more. It was like a new beginning, and it gave sense to the model. I worked it out.

You see, I want to work in publishing. But publishing is a big business, and a loaded term. It could be my own business, or it could be for one of the biggies, but it's the dream. It's also not a great way to make money.

The only way I see this working is to combined writing and publishing, and the writing can't just be fiction. It needs to be non-fiction that seeks to help others. It needs to be screenplays that, if they're lucky enough to make it to cinemas as a finished film, will give people a sense of joy. I need to be able to teach people about the world in some way, shape or form. Movies change lives. They can show people something with just enough reality that the message gets through.

That's the passion - the message. That's what Ferriss couldn't show me how to deliver. That's what Lovell was guiding me towards. And Field, he finished the job, by going back to the basics, back to where my dreams started - with writing, and with the business of it.

The thing is, I didn't go looking for change. I went looking for an interesting read. The books that influence us most aren't the ones we expect to change our lives. The books that influence us just happen, mostly by accident, and that's where the pleasure lies in them. While there are other books that have helped shape my life in different ways, like Brendon Burchard's The Millionaire Messenger, there's less than a handful that actually piece together to form a cohesive model that I can follow - one that requires my own input in the making. Those are the books I'll cling to, the ones I'll return to for advice and wisdom, again and again.

Most Likely To...

In college, preparations are underway for a Yearbook and for the End of Year Ball. As this is my final year, both are entirely relevant to me, and have required me to fill in sheets of "Most likely to..."s for my classmates.

The overall effect of these sheets? Well, for a start I feel old. Final year in college... how did that happen? When I was a child I used to think that Primary School was pretty much as far as you got. When you finish in school, that's it: story over, nothing else happens. Kids didn't grow up, make friends outside of the activities that existed when I was eight, write books, get a job, go to college, make a whole bunch of other friends, or have to think about the future as they approached the end of their time in college.

It was a simpler time.

But here I am, at the end, feeling old, and, well, second effect: thinking about the future.

See, the thought of who is most likely to travel the world, or get married first, or have their own talk show, or anything that has made its way onto the various lists, that's weird. It's a weird and alien thought and it basically leaves us with no choice but to think about the future. In saying that, it's not all about careers and what we will do immediately after exams end, but it's still all about the things that might happen to us as we move on past the college years.

I've had to think about this for a while, now, actually. There were worries that, at the end of the financial year, my shop might close. This was based on rumour and my own remarkable ability to become increasingly anxious about something as the hours go by. We're still open, thankfully, but I did have a plan in place in case things went sour. I had to. After the last time, I didn't want to be stuck thinking "What now?"

So, I drew up a list of various considerations. What would I have to sacrifice to hang on to money when I would need it most? This ended up being things like comic books and cinema trips. I don't go out much, and when I do go out...it's usually to the cinema. Once a week, if I'm lucky. I can't afford an unhealthy drinking habit. Yay me. (I'm joking here... it's not obvious, because most of my comedic value lies in being "sassy", as a friend of mine says. I enjoy going to the cinema every week. My liver is all the better for it, given the alternative.)

As well as the sacrifices, I had to consider how else I might make an income. I didn't presuppose employment right away, or easy access to redundancy money (from the company or the State). That's just the way things are. So, I listed the books I had planned to write, took all those weekend hours and Friday nights into consideration, and gave myself deadlines.

Then, I planned ahead further. I bought Tim Ferriss's book, as mentioned in a recent post, and devised some plans based on that. I've got a couple of things in mind, now, and some rough plans to follow through on them. Though Ferriss advises against making plans for three months from now (because they won't get done, most of the time), I don't have a choice. Unlike a lot of his readers who work 9-5 jobs, I have lectures, assignments and exams to think about.

However, all of this - and some previous forward thinking - has me semi-prepared for the future that I have no choice but to think about, thanks to my very position in college and the impending future. I'm sticking to the deadlines for books as closely as I can, working off a checklist I drew up for myself. I'm not cutting back on what I do each week, though I'm being more careful with my spending; I'm not just buying things for the sake of it. And, I'm making plans, for immediate effect, for the summer. This involves a lot of writing and work, but with an end goal in mind: making life more enjoyable for myself while I attempt to save up to work on towards a Masters Degree.

Seriously, I have lots of books on various topics to help me on my way in this. Marketing, business, psychology, mental health, writing, religion, IT and self-motivation are the major ones. Yeah, I read around. (Side note, the non-college books I'm reading at the moment are: 'Successful Business Plans', 'Superheroes and Physics' and 'Flagging the Problem'.) Varied topics, various uses, and I enjoy all of it.

I think I read in so many different areas out of fear of losing choices. John Green once spoke about how every decision we make in life invariably leads towards having less choices. We go to college and specialise in an area, and suddenly we don't have the option of doing something else. In my case, I specialise in English and Religion; I cannot become a heart surgeon after this. (I don't want to become a heart surgeon, mind you, and I don't think I'd be very good at it.) But I figure there are plenty of things I can do that I don't need to have specialised for, and by generalising my reading topics, I not only expose myself to various types of langauge and thinking, I allow myself some more choices. I could set up a business, or write a comic book, or simply write about the different topics I'm reading in. I could create a module for the new Junior Cycle Programme, or simply baffle students with a knowledge of things outside of my particular subject area.

Because of all this, stemming from a fear of losing choices, losing possibilities, and facing the future unprepared, I'm not sure that a "Most Likely To..." can accurately describe what my life will be like. I think it says more about who I am now, and how I appear to other people. But just as importantly, it gives me an idea of what I  have the option to do or become. I couldn't ask for anything more at the end of my course than a possibility.

4 Hour Work Week?

For a while now, I've been looking into reading a particular book: Tim Ferriss's 'Four Hour Work Week'. At some point or another, I was unable to get my hands on it. My shop couldn't stock it, I refused to spend money in another shop (and anyway, I couldn't find it) and I didn't have the time to top up my pre-pay credit card. All in all, the world did not want me to read that book.

However, a friend of mine gave me a book for my birthday that I already had. He was okay with me exchanging it, given he gave me the same book the year before but forgot which one he picked up, so I headed into the Realm Without a Name, the Dreaded Bookshop, my Rival, to exchange the book.

End result? I found Ferriss in the Business section and only had to pay a few euro extra (less than a fiver!) to buy the book. I didn't feel like Judas leaving, so that was fine. Just, you know, never again.

I've been reading the book since, though not constantly, and trying to find ways to implement his advice as much as possible while I'm still in college. This means I'm chasing certain dreams in step-by-step processes, but several of them at a time, and getting my head around what I'll be doing with my life.

I'll admit, not everything Ferriss has to say will apply to my life, at least not in the immediate future. I don't foresee myself needing a virtual assistant, or taking part in one of his Comfort Challenges (simply because it's the sort of thing that doesn't fit into Irish culture: asking strangers for their number. Plus, teenage girls make themselves look much older outside of school...and I don't want to get arrested for confusing a seventeen year old with a twenty two year old!)

In saying that, there are still things I can consider. While I'm still reading the book, it's clear that there are some ideas and concepts that can be applied to my life, even if I don't go quite as far as only working four hours per week. Work, for me, is writing a book. I enjoy it too much to only do it for four hours per week. I would do it more if I could, but, you know, college.

Still, I think it's a worthwhile read, and it's making me want to do something with my life now, rather than wait for some golden opportunity to just arrive at my door.

That's not how life works. But then, I'm talking about applying the advice of a man who works as little as possible.

We'll see what comes of reading this book. In the meantime, I've still got a few months left in college, exams and breaks included, before I'm free to take a shot at being a "grown up".

I don't know the meaning of the term.