(Original blog date: 25/11/09)

Money money money. It seems all anyone cares about these days is money. And they’re all talking millions. It would appear you’re not SOMEBODY till you’re making MILLIONS. No one gives a crap until you’re putting away boatloads. Truly an age where the superfluous is believed to be essential. I saw a PR website recently where someone promises not just to make you rich but to make you a millionaire. Isn’t there any other reason people do stuff anymore?

Running a publishing company is hard. But it’s probably even harder (and more brain-numbingly dull) if you’re obsessed with the cash. It’s interesting to me that the very businesses who complain their books aren’t selling are those who’re OBSESSED with millions. It’s all they ever talk about. The next money-maker. It’s the same reason everyone works constantly but no one’s happy, the publishers are churning out trash that no one reads, and people spend vast fortunes on useless shit like weddings only to shed their loveless marriages a year later.

Fortunately, I’m not in this for the cash. I’m never in anything for the cash. I’m in it because I can’t take the atrociously elitist monopolistic domination of the book business lying down. I have to fight it. Feel free to call me crazy, I know I would.

Interestingly, every project I have tried to get into only for the moolah has ended disastrously. And I find this to be true of all people who as I watched, have gone in for the fast and easy quick-buck solution. Things look good at first, then fall apart rapidly.

It’s an important lesson and a vital one to being happy. Don’t do anything for the cash. Don’t even do it because it’s useful or because people say it’s the right thing to do. Do it only because you want to. There’s no better reason! And if it costs you, all the better. Nothing that costs you nothing can bring true happiness.