A quick lunchtime read
Oh, hi friends!
I love that when you read David Sedaris you can hear him—really hear him. Here’s a tidbit from an older New Yorker piece that was mentioned in Jocelyn K. Glei’s must-read newsletter.
***
Pat was driving, and as we passed the turnoff for a shopping center she invited us to picture a four-burner stove.
“Gas or electric?” Hugh asked, and she said that it didn’t matter.
This was not a real stove but a symbolic one, used to prove a point at a management seminar she’d once attended. “One burner represents your family, one is your friends, the third is your health, and the fourth is your work.” The gist, she said, was that in order to be successful you have to cut off one of your burners. And in order to be really successful you have to cut off two.
Pat has her own business, a good one that’s allowing her to retire at fifty-five. She owns three houses, and two cars, but, even without the stuff, she seems like a genuinely happy person. And that alone constitutes success.
I asked which two burners she had cut off, and she said that the first to go had been family. After that, she switched off her health. “How about you?”
I thought for a moment, and said that I’d cut off my friends. “It’s nothing to be proud of, but after meeting Hugh I quit making an effort.”
“And what else?” she asked.
“Health, I guess.”
Hugh’s answer was work.
“And?”
“Just work,” he said.
***
Do you agree or disagree with the four-burner philosophy? Read the rest of the story about his trip to Australia here.
“Working on your grand plan is like shoveling snow that hasn’t fallen yet. Just do the next right thing.”
David Carr sure had a way with words.
Pitch It Like You Mean It
Ann Friedman has a v. helpful Twitter thread about who’s accepting pitches.
And this website and newsletter Pitching Shark also has many calls for pitches!
So go gather your thoughts and then send, send, send them away.
Thank you for reading.
Love, Kara