‘Work without love is slavery.” — Mother Teresa.
While we do not have enough space here to discuss the full philosophy of education, it is worth questioning whether our formal learning is an aspect of life or a means to an end. Following on from that, what end? How many high school, college and university students choose their subjects based on their love of that subject and how many opt for the courses and subjects most likely to land them the best-paid jobs?
In the past, the first question asked by career counsellors at schools was not, “What do you love to do?” but instead, “What are you good at?” The two aren’t mutually exclusive, but for those of us who don’t reach the dizzying heights of genius, it is probably better to lead a successful working life that keeps you happy rather than a brilliant one that keeps you dull. At the Emirates Airline Festival of Literature, we have hosted some of the literary world’s most inspirational people telling some of their most aspirational stories. I can’t think of any that came straight from a creative writing course to achieve best-selling status or found themselves recipients of any global awards within their first years. However, one vital snippet of information, which every writer shared with us, was this: “I loved books, I read avidly, I went to the library, books were the best gift I could receive.” It is an anthem all writers have sung in one voice. So, what lesson can we learn from this common thread? If you want to succeed at something in life, first love it, then practise improving that skill every day. To be a great writer, you must be someone who has read widely, deeply and lovingly.
As well as a huge exposure to the written word, life experience can be the greatest qualification of all. If we look at some of the most respected authors in recent times, we see that they have drawn on their knowledge and adventures from the most unlikely of sources. William S. Burroughs for example, compiled many of his short stories having worked as an insect-exterminator, and before penning Catch-22, Joseph Heller was a blacksmith’s apprentice. The great James Joyce operated a screen-projector in a cinema, but most reassuringly of all to any unhappy would-be authors is John Steinbeck, who worked as a tour guide and caretaker at a fish hatchery and later as a manufacturer of plastic mannequins before Of Mice and Men became a true classic.
Academic and specialist authors obviously need to know their subject material inside-out and the chances are that they became experts in their fields before putting pen to paper for a wider audience. The best-read cooks, biologists, astronomers, historians etc will generally have a love of their subjects as their core passion and a desire to share it as their second.
Sadly, there are too many people — particularly young people — who have too little passion in their professional lives. There is almost a consensus that work should be seen as drudgery, as a necessity, as an obligation, as a place they would rather not be. Big salaries, impressive titles and an easy life are often the prime criteria for find the ‘right’ job and that is a tragedy, not only for the people who are wasting their talents, but also for the communities that could be better served.
If we go back to our authors, there are lessons to be learned from the passion these writers feel for their craft. For them, ‘if at first you don’t succeed’ is more of a motto than a proverb. The pain of writing, the constant self-doubt, the number of publishing rejections — it must be love. As Douglas Adams’ writing career stalled in the mid-1970s, he worked as a hospital porter, barn builder, chicken-shed cleaner and bodyguard for a wealthy Qatari family.
Ken Kesey could not have had a more authentic source of inspiration for One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest than his stint as a voluntary participant in CIA psychiatric tests. The sparse surroundings not only helped him to establish the sanity-ridden atmosphere of his fictional hospital, but he drew on the hallucinogenic side-effects of his tests to flesh out his characters.
If, however, you have the right people in the right places, things can be considerably easier. Despite several attempts to make her way in the world as an author, Harper Lee, writer of one of the greatest and most relevant American novels and winner of the 1961 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, worked as a reservation clerk at Eastern Airlines for years when she received a note from (extremely close) friends: “You have one year off from your job to write whatever you please. Merry Christmas.” By the next year, she’d penned To Kill a Mockingbird.
My advice to the next generation of school and university leavers is that whatever work you do (and I am lucky enough to have my dream job) to be professional, prosperous, but above all, be passionate.
— Isobel Abulhoul is OBE, CEO and trustee of the Emirates Literature Foundation and director of the Emirates Airline Festival of Literature
