This is the age of the slogan, the soundbite, the snappy phrase in place of considered argument. Thought is dying; reason’s gone critical. In bookshops and magazine racks we’re told only what we want to hear: we’re told it in neat, bullet-pointed affirmations of our own worth.

No more. This is the fightback. The resuscitation. This is the slogan as explainer of the world. One a day for a year. Three hundred and sixty five phrases, soundbites and bullet points with which to make sense of the way things are now and point to how things could be tomorrow. Read them and weep.


Monday

9. Luck is more important than talent

Right now there are a million amazing musicians in this country who will never be properly heard. There are a million extravagantly gifted sportsmen and women who will never represent club or country. There are a million supremely sensitive actors who will never set foot on a stage and there are a million writers who will never be read. Their talent has nothing to do with it. Their lack of opportunity, of contacts, of luck, has everything to do with it. It is simply not enough to be very good at something – you have to be noticed, given a leg-up, get in ahead of all those who are simply quite good, or better-than-average, or even just okay – but who have stumbled across a lucky break and exploited it well. Spotting your chance and taking it is far more important than working on your talent alone. Average men run the world – leaving the lonely geniuses performing to their own four walls, shouting into the wind, unheard.
Posted by at