Two types of people you need to know about

Whether you like to think so or not, people you know have a profound influence upon you. No matter how much you hold fast to your belief that 'no one tells you what to do', other people's thoughts, suggestions and hints will influence how you do certain things or cause you to back away from other things or trouble your mind even if you do your best to refuse to let it happen.

Ever heard of the 'seeds of doubt'? Well these 'suggestions' are much the same thing. Probably because they're masked with the guise of friendship, people tend to take suggestions, good or bad, on board.

For the artist, this can often be their downfall.

It's often said that there are many different types of people in this world. The 'go-get 'em' types, the conservative types, the shy types...etc, etc... But there are also the crazy and insane types, too. All these 'kinds' of people break down into two larger but separate categories: Good and Bad. What delineates people are their motivations - their motives can be good or bad regardless of their personality. For example, a crazy person may have good intentions, just a crazy way to go about turning them into reality. On the other hand, a conservative person may be bad intentioned but appear very, very respectable. Good people will help those around them, bad people will hinder those around them - it's pretty simple. The trouble is that sometimes, for the above reasons, we can't tell them apart. Seemingly well-intentioned people may approach you, and you may accept their help, but their help is disastrous. So, naturally, it pays to keep an eye on your associates: do they help or hinder you?

As a writer, the most important thing you have is your ability to communicate. That's pretty much your magic wand...it's your tool of the trade. If you took everything else away from you, that'd be what you're left with. Actually, it's the crux of what makes you a writer. Certainly, you back this up with other things, like your ability to put words together or to tell a story. But these are really an embroidering of the very basic first thing: communication.

Certainly, there are shy writers and there are loud obnoxious writers, too. But when it comes to telling a story, the shy writers are just as adept at communication as are the loud ones. At the end of the day, a writer's best weapon is his ability to communicate.

And that, unfortunately, draws the attention of the not-so-nice types - the bad-intentioned people I mentioned earlier. You see, as a writer you have a very high potential for communication; your work could be read by people far and wide. You can create an effect on people that you may never meet and that you will never know. Many people want this ability to create such an effect but have not the skill to actually do it. Hence, when they see someone with this keen communicative ability, they want it and will leech onto it. But, they may also feel threatened by it and will seek to pull you down by attacking your craft.

You don't need to look too far in history to find that artists or other creative people (athletes, etc) have drawn the attention of these leech type people.
Musicians and actors are a great example of this at work. These nasty types usually latch themselves onto the creative person and find out a way to make a cut out of the hard work that the artist has achieved and then, at the end of it all, leave the artist dry of their hard-earned money and move onto the next victim.

If you don't believe me, let history tell the story. Sadly, the list of victims is not short: Elvis Presley, Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, Michael Hutchence, Michael Jackson...the list goes on and continues to. If you guessed that they all died young you'd be right. Boxer Mike Tyson gives an excellent account of his relationship with Don King in a recent documentary about his life and describes the latter as (if on other words) a leech.

The thing to understand is that this type of person wants rewards but for little or no work. They're like sponges and if you ever balk at them feeding off you, they tend to point an accusative finger at you and tell you it's you who are the greedy one. They have subtle ways of confusing those around them so that no one knows they're there lurking and so can be completely unnoticeable.

But if you're lucky enough to become even mildly successful, they'll be around you.

It takes more than a few guts to first look for and then find and deal with this type of person. But, if you're a creative type, you can bet that you have a person like this around you, making you doubt your moves or your activities or making you think that you're just not good enough. If you think that that little doubting voice in the back of your head is you, I can assure you you're wrong. It's just that seed of doubt that I mentioned earlier, which was laid by one of these bad-type personalities.

The idea of this type of person isn't new, it definitely isn't mine, either...it's just that I've had the misfortune to run into a few lately. L. Ron Hubbard called them the "Antisocial Personality" (He wrote probably the best book I have read on this subject is called "Science of Survival" New Era Publications). While the rapper KRS1 is a little more direct, labelling them 'Negative Mother F-----s' and recommending rather colourfully that we should not 'hang' with them. Fair enough, too. No one would want these nay sayers among their associates.

As writers, we want cheerful, encouraging and supportive people around us. People that will, when the chips are down and we have our backs against the wall, be right there next to us fighting on our side. Not pretending to be helping us while actually pulling the rug from under us. These are the people that will read your work and tell you 'honestly' as a 'friend' how bad your writing is and that perhaps you should consider another path in life that better suits your intellect and ability. Or remind you regularly how hard your career path will be and that you should brace yourself for a crash because 'people like you' don't usually make it. You, as an artist, do not need these characters around you. If you find any, don't excuse them as your friends by saying 'oh...that's just Bill', but get rid of them and get better friends.

Recently, I came across such a person. I didn't realise it at the time but when I was thinking of achieving big dreams, he was reminding me how impossible my goals were. He was reminding me at every opportunity just how impossible what I had in mind was. Fortunately, I cut them loose and the moment I did, things changed for the better.

These are the people that make you second guess your own abilities or tell you to take notice of the critics and what other people say about you and your work. Personally, I don't care about critics: factually, they're the ones that 'can't do' what they're telling you you can't do and so, perhaps out of jealousy, become hypercritical of those that are trying. Ignore the critics, but don't forget to get rid of these negative types from the ranks of your friends.

If they're a business associate, get rid of them swiftly because you'll notice your association in the hip pocket. They'll tell you how hard it is to make money and certainly you'll soon start to believe it. Sure, they may call themselves the 'voice of reason' - but they're not. You already have your own voice of reason and, if you make a mistake, you'll soon let yourself know about it. You don't ever need someone else telling you that you should be careful for this reason or that reason. You see, that's making you hesitant and uncertain of your own abilities and dreams and it's when you're hesitant that you make the worst mistakes. Then, afterwards while in similar situations, you'll find yourself uncertain when you need to be decisive.

Personally, I think the hardest thing for good people to do is to accept that there are 'bad' types of people around, to confront the idea that not every person has your best intentions at heart and that you may already rank some of these 'bad' people among your 'friends'. It's not a nice thing to know that there are people like this...but it's something good people need to know about, even if it is a bit hard to swallow at first.

Keep an eye out for them.

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