Think for a second about the symptoms of addiction: rationalization, self-destructiveness, lack of control, and self-loathing. They sound familiar for a reason. It’s called most people. In 12-Step programs they force addicts to submit to a higher power. It has nothing to do with the existence of God.

They ask you to acknowledge something bigger than yourself because it is a necessary weapon in the process of becoming someone different. How much better served would you be if you submitted to learning and reflection? If you stopped acting without asking “Why am I doing this? Does it serve a purpose?”

There is this great line in What Makes Sammy Run where Al realizes that the sudden, poetic vindication he’d hoped for was never going to come. The world wasn’t ever going to rise up and punish Sammy. The process was the punishment. His life was the disease. And my favorite part of the Meditations is where Marcus remembers that the best revenge is to “not be like that. ”

Most people suck. They are horrible. They are stupid and presumptuous – small-minded, opinionated and dishonest. And they’ve decided that keeping others at inaction is easier than acting yourself.

I have tried really hard my whole life to be different. I have all these little rules for myself that that’ll never get paid back for. I don’t recline my seat on airplanes. I switch lanes when people want to pass. I get so despondent and depressed and angry when I have to contribute to something I don’t believe in that people start to worry about my health.

It might be hokey or lame or out of place for me to say, but you can be different too. You don’t have to be the kid who’s email is so profoundly ridiculous that I forward it to all my friends and we laugh at what a colossal douche you are. No one has a gun to your head that says you have to walk around ignorant. Its not in your best interest to be selfish, shameless and awful. You don’t need to be like your parents – perhaps the most embarrassing and underachieving generation ever.

All I know is that I have seen exponential rewards from going my own way. I don’t mean school or Hollywood – I mean being in utter and complete control of the person I’d like to be. And understanding the process it takes to get there. That requires submission – not to the Trinity – but to the idea that kicking and clawing will get you nowhere.

The addictions I mentioned earlier will never leave you. You have to leave them.

Been on a tear lately. All these are worth reading. If you don’t have an Amazon Prime membership, you’re wasting time and money.

–What Makes Sammy Run – Budd Schulberg (again)

–My Year Inside Radical Islam – Daveed Gartestein-Ross

–The Essential Difference: The Truth About Autism – Simon Baron-Cohen

–Work and Other Sins – Charlie LeDuff

–Black Brothers, Inc. : The Violent Rise and Fall of Philadelphia’s Black Mafia – Sean Griffin

–Less Than Zero – Bret Easton Ellis

–Only in American: Life and Crimes of Don King – Jack Newfield

–The Cathedral and the Bazaar: Musings on Linux and Open Source – Eric S Raymond

–Bambi vs Godzilla: On the Nature, Purpose and Practice of the Movie Business – David Mamet

“It’s almost impossible to make a living off being a producer,” says Endeavor agent Brian Swardstrom. “You have to be rich or lucky or you end up out of the business. You have to hustle to eke out a living. You can’t just sit there like the old days when you could call your friends and get a kickback. That’s long gone. Some like Scott Rudin and Imagine and Working Title are doing their own thing. Everyone else is hustling their ass off.” – Variety

The ironic thing is that almost every person I’ve met in Hollywood spends most of their time trying to do a little actual work as possible – to avoid moving the product from shipment to sale. In school, you’re trying to learn how to be good at school instead of figuring out exactly what it is you’re supposed to do. Hollywood is the same way.

And after reading about every major American hustler of the last hundred years, I don’t think I came across a single one that wasn’t 1) Intimately aware of every step of the process 2) Almost 100% self-taught. Jail, for many of them, was their lucky break because they used the time for education – something infinitely different than “schooling.”

So, are you learning to hustle?