Colin Wright's Blog, page 38

A Better Version

A Creative Act

We’re told that artists cannot be business people, because that would be selling out.

We’re told that business people cannot be artists, because that would be idealistic.

This wall we imagine between the two fields is bullshit.

Building things is, by definition, a creative act. Conceiving and making manifest a business or product or methodology or idea is inherently imaginative. Inventing a way to make money from what you’ve built — to make your work sustainable economically, while also allowing...

Coffee with the Other Man

This is a short story pulled from my most-recent fiction collection, Coffee with the Other Man, which focuses on relationships and is available on Amazon for $.99.

Brill wished the world had a face he could punch. Or balls worth kicking. He was certain he’d heard a story once, about some sort of creation myth that someone, at some point, actually believed. The myth involved testicles and a massive penis and something about creating the world with the ejaculated seed of a god. The details were...

Mastery is a Double-Edged Sword

I spend at least an hour a day answering questions about my life and work.

Travel, publishing, self-education, branding; the emails pile up and I love that I’m able to share what I’ve learned with other people so easily.

It’s not uncommon to see someone who has achieved some degree of mastery (or even just competence) in a given field spending a good deal of their time answering questions. Work your way up any learning curve and you’ll find the ratio of people who can learn from you to the peop...

This is What I Do

I’ve never been a fan of convention.

It’s not that I’m intentionally trying to throw myself off the well-worn path: It’s more that I find growth and happiness in the ditch alongside the trail, or in the woods away from the guideposts that will ostensibly tell me how to get where I’m going. I know I’ll get where I need to be, and following such markers increases the chance that I’ll end up at a destination, but not my destination.

This mode of operation has led me from challenge to challenge, ne...

I’ll Never Know

I’ll never know what it’s like to be starvation-level poor, wondering where my next meal will come from, and if I will, in fact, have a next meal.

I’ll never know what it’s like to be so hooked on a substance, so truly dependent on the chemicals it causes my body to release, that I’d do anything for another fix; anything at all to avoid the inevitable shakes and pain and depression that overtake me otherwise.

I’ll never know what it’s like to be morbidly obese, because of genetics or my own hab...

Tethers and Change

Each and every city has a color palette. Sometimes that palette is meaningful, and sometimes it just is, but I’m willing to bet Santiago’s has some deeper meaning. The prominence of reds and earthy yellows and sooty blues are too consistently thrown over an idealized white that I imagine must have once represented something clean and modern and Westernized, but now leaves most buildings with a not-unattractive rusty undertone that I find quite pleasant, to be totally random.

There are still bi...

No Promises

We love guarantees. Reducing risk when purchasing a new car or trying out a new gym is a deal-sealer for many people because it means you can jump headfirst into the pool, but pull yourself back out, dry as when you started, should you find the temperature is not to your liking, depth is not ideal, or the chlorination levels are too high.

We also like to follow instructions that guarantee certain results. Try this diet — you’ll lose 20 pounds, guaranteed. Try this philosophy — you’ll be way mo...

There Will Always Be More

There will always be more ideas, if you’re capable of having them.

There will always be more opportunities, if you’re in the position to notice and take advantage of them.

There will always be more ways to stand out and show the world who you are, if you’re willing to do so in the first place.

There will always be more paychecks and rich foods and attractive company and exciting stories to live out and tell to awestruck friends and family years later, once the scars have healed.

And because there...

Brave, Mighty Words