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May 30, 2009

twenty five years

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As y’all will already know, June 11th is the date my book, IGNORE EVERYBODY comes out.
It just occu­rred to me, that date ALSO marks the TWENTY FIFTH anni­ver­sary of me star­ting my first real job– a trai­nee bar­ten­der at Whigham’s Wine Bar, Edin­burgh- June 11th, 1984– right after I had finished my final high school exams.
Since then, of course, I’ve had PLENTY of adven­tu­res. Atten­ding Uni­ver­sity in Texas, wor­king offshore in the Gulf of Mexico, wor­king in adver­ti­sing, wor­king in TV (briefly), star­ting a gree­ting card com­pany, dra­wing car­toons, get­ting invol­ved with blogs and blog mar­ke­ting, con­sul­ting, making and selling prints, wri­ting a book. A real roller coas­ter, to say the least.
Twenty five years seems a long time get from where I was then, to where I am now. Had I had my act more together, had I been a bit luc­kier, had my per­so­na­lity been more sui­ted to some of the paths that I chose for myself, it pro­bably would’ve taken me half the time. I’ve had my fair share of disap­point­ment & disas­ter along the way, that’s for cer­tain.
But part of me also knows that, had it gone more smoothly, more quickly, I pro­bably wouldn’t have ended up somewhere NEARLY as inte­res­ting.
Every­body pays full price for being who they are. Only the inte­rest rate fluctuates.

9 Responses to “twenty five years”

1. Daniel Williams says:

   May 30, 2009 at 4:17 PM

   Fair enough,
   Everyone’s jour­ney is dif­fe­rent. I like the eco­no­mist way of loo­king at life’s choi­ces. Every­body is paying their full price in terms of deci­sions made, con­se­quen­ces, results etc. The return on those invest­ments in time and deci­sions, depends on the mar­ket at the time when you decide to sell your skills.
2. gwalter says:

   May 30, 2009 at 4:56 PM

   True enough — there is no free lunch.
   I too have taken a cir­cui­tous route — I’ve always said we have to “pay for our edu­ca­tionj” some of get stu­dent loans and defer the pay­ments, some of us pay cash, and some of us go to the school of hard rocks and we pay through blood, sweat, bro­ken hearts, and tears.
   Either way — it is still a pretty steep price!
3. Robert says:

   May 30, 2009 at 5:30 PM

   Amen to that Hugh.
4. Eddy Winters says:

   May 31, 2009 at 4:20 AM

   I was in Whighams last week during a visit to my home town of Edin­burgh (I am based in Dubai). Rest assu­red it hasn’t chan­ged in 25 years..!! That inc­lu­des the customers.
5. Jake Edwards says:

   May 31, 2009 at 8:54 PM

   Gotta agree, my expe­rience, through mostly my own ludic­rous design and fire­brand atti­tude has been one bad roller­coas­ter of a ride through hea­ven and hell, into pur­ga­tory, des­pair and beyond to elation…it just wont stop… there‘s no fuc­king fric­tion to be found, thank god, but it‘s really great fro authen­tic songw­ri­ting and story telling.
   Lea­ving everything behind to rot and wan­de­ring around a bit is a great way to kick things off.
6. Rod Roth says:

   June 1, 2009 at 10:12 AM

   I know you know that nothing is was­ted, Hugh. There is no such thing as “if we knew then…” because we didn’t. It’s all good, though. Wouldn’t have it any other way. Rod
7. Rod Roth says:

   June 1, 2009 at 10:14 AM

   I know you know that nothing is was­ted, Hugh. There is no such thing as “if we knew then…” because we didn’t. It’s all good, though. Wouldn’t have it any other way. Rod
8. Jorg says:

   June 2, 2009 at 9:19 AM

   Hear hear! Keep on doing the things you do. I am enjo­ying your work, thoughts and visuals for a cou­ple of years now. Nothing was­ted there.
9. Lanna Lee Maheux-Quinn says:

   June 2, 2009 at 7:44 PM

   Just pre-ordered Ignore Every­body for my Kindle! Can’t wait ti read it.