Life of db

Great article on the fictional and non-fictional divide. Ever since the beginning of time we’ve longed to classify every living thing, every material possession into some definable category. 

Often when you talk to somebody and the topic of literature (or music) comes up, the conversation will inevitably turn to questions about what type of books you read, or what genre of music makes your heart sing.

Jonathan Fields has a better way of classifying: 

Fiction, nonfiction…doesn’t really matter. When people ask what I write or read, I don’t have an answer. I read books that in some way leave me different than when I began.

You’ll most often find me reading a business book of one sort or another, but what is a business book? It’s most often an exploration into another field of study anyway! That’s why I chose business. There is no more interdisciplinary studying done than in the field of business.. But more importantly, every so often I read a fictional book that alters my perception, or influences my style of writing and I’m better off for it. 

Perhaps we should just classify in terms of “Awesome” or “Shitty” books.
Let me read the Awesome books, you can read the non/fictional ones. 

They’re hustlers, jugglers, madmen, egomaniacs, people who desperately attempt to build empires on little money and less time. I would never want to be one, but if you want to, more power to you. But here’s the thing: Those entrepreneurs go through hell to do what they do. You can’t take their title and apply it to yourself just because you want to belong to that club.

This is bad-ass. It’s also quite true, at least in the sense that mostly everyone who says they are an entrepreneur doesn’t put their backs up against the wall. There’s a difference between Joe and Trish. Joe works a 9-5 and then puts his sash on stating his position as an Artist for 3 hours on a Sunday night. Then Joe takes his fifty bucks and runs to the store and buys a bag of chips to make it to the next Sunday. Trish is somebody who lives and breathes their art (in whatever form it takes), and without it she wouldn’t have a place to live.

I think that if you want to label yourself as an entrepreneur, more than 50% of your income should come from whatever art you produce (side note: while you’re at it, update your definition of art).