The candor was infectious. It spread back to the beginning of your life. You tried to tell her, as well as you could, what it was like being you. You described the feeling you’d always had of being misplaced, of always standing off to one side of yourself, of watching yourself in the world even as you were being in the world and wondering if this was how everyone felt. That you always believed that other people had a much clearer idea of what they were doing, and didn’t worry quite so much about why. You talked about your first day of school. You hid in the woods until the bus came, you saw the bus leave and then went home and told her you had missed it. So Mom drove you to school, and by the time you got there, you were an hour late. Everybody watched you come in with your little note, and heard you explain that you’d missed the bus. When you finally sat down you knew that you would never catch up.” Bright Light, Big City by Jay McInerney

So, as well as you can (here or otherwise), what’s it like being you?

Today, I came to a conclusion that I liked and then realized that it only clicked so suddenly because Tucker had been explaining it to me for months. Occasionally, I’ll see an email from one person to another where all the words are mine. It used to drive me insane. Now I realize that it means I’m doing something right. I’m starting to think that a belief in the clear delineation between where one idea ends and where another begins is bullshit.

When you accept that very rarely will any idea be original and forgo rights to ownership, you free yourself up to do the important part – complete understanding. I think that means a huge thank you to the people who allow me to get close enough to hear theirs. As we try to absorb, make sense, compile, discard, destruct and create, confuse, iron and simplify, we’re left with one big mess where authorship is a little murky. And that’s how it should be. Hopefully, I’ll be able to return the favor.

If I could end with stealing someone else’s – and they probably know who they are – it’d be that the more you care about credit, the less you’ll actually be able to accomplish.

In The Black Swan, Taleb tells scientists to spend less time in the lab and more time experimenting with life because that is where their next discovery will come from. I forgot who it was, but a one of the Stoics used to say that even the sleeping were doing their job. On an individual level, sleeping is as much a part of your job as answering emails or taking a meeting. Everything is work. Everything is part of developing yourself. The job – the part the pays you – is just a small percentage that.

You never know where a relationship can happen. Brian Clark commented on the 3rd post I wrote for this site because I’d linked to a CopyBlogger article. By the end of the week – almost 15 months later – he, TheExecutive and I should be wrapping up a deal where will be working together with one of the biggest young actresses on cable.

I’ve only been formally employed for two years now but I am constantly withdrawing from things I did on the internet long before a paycheck compelled me to do it. Articles I read and remember. Sites I used to have accounts on. People I’ve heard of or talked to. Something I taught myself when I was trying to figure out how to get music without paying for it.

So how can anyone expect these things to happen without actually being involved? Brian can’t leave you a comment if you don’t have one. You can’t chance across some new business opportunity if you’re not actively seeking new things in general. And you certainly can’t begin to build a name for yourself if you haven’t bothered to put it out there. You have to set yourself up for good things to happen. There is a reason why when I stop and look around I don’t find many competitors – most people don’t do anything.

I’ve said this before, I know. It doesn’t matter. Whatever it is that you want to do, you can be doing it now. You can be laying the groundwork to be better at it than anyone else. And specifically if new media is what appeals to you, that stuff is so easy it’s laughable.