Taking Advantage of Life

Those of you who know me outside of my alter-ego, pen name persona know me hopefully more as a leader in industry and understand that I’m going to transition to a full-time author life in a couple years. Hopefully, you realize that to me, this future author thing is a hobby—something I do to fill the time that used to be occupied by violin recitals, track meets, and piano concerts that my children participated in while in high school.

Until I transition, my priority must be my current job. Too many people depend on me to not give that current job my full attention. However, I also understand the math that 80% of me the executive which is augmented by 20% of M.B. Everett gives more to my company than 100% of me dedicated to my current role. I am a strong believer of the European persona philosophy—that you aren’t defined by your job. By me taking a little time to decompress makes the quality and the quantity of the 80% I focus on my current career much more efficient.

All that is to say, or explain, why the last seven weeks have been distracting from my author life. In my role over my career there have been many seasons where I had to spend a short sprint of time focused more on my job. More than 80%, which naturally must be deducted from sleep or the 20% I set aside for my hobby. This has been one of those short sprints. That my decompress time has been filling in the gaps and is more often thinking about my projects and where they are going to go.

It is how I use that “in-the-gaps” time that should elevate my work. “How can I work the stress I am currently feeling into a story to make it feel more realistic?” When my father passed last November, I wanted to capture some of the feelings from my grief and so I wrote The Immortal of the Saltless Sea. Those that are close to me know that I’m not a very emotive person. In a way my outlet was that short story. It was a tribute to my father and a therapeutic channel for me to try to pull some of those emotions from me. I read it now and remember my childhood and my relationships growing up with my father and my brothers.

Similarly, my work trips do provide inspiration. Places I’ve seen or stories I’ve been involved with over the 30 plus years of being an employee will eventually leech into my storyshowing. Lee Child, author of the Jack Reacher series once said “You should start late. Because only until you see stuff or experience stuff can you share it.” I’ve been blessed by getting to see and experience a ton of stuff in my career. I’ve been able to meet some very good characters that I can share with you. I’ve worked for workaholics, and people who have immigrated from other countries. I’ve for short blasts of time learned what the Scottish Highlands are like and spent a ton of time in modern Japan. I’ve travelled to the Italian Alps and walked the streets of Venice.

I need to keep telling myself this over the next few years as I grind out ‘working-for-the-man’ when I get frustrated. I need to continue to collect experiences to use. I know that my next season of life may be limited. I’ll be 58, at the earliest when I jump into this next chapter and I don’t know how many years the Good Lord has in store for me after. However, just like my goal is to have a tiny little bit of money left when he takes me home, I hope that my “idea account, my experience account,” is also nearly depleted.