Maybe You Can’t
I spotted this lovely link on rasfc: Maybe You Can’t: Overcoming Failure and the Myth of Success by Chuck Charleston. [It’s actually a parody, not a real book.] Here’s a quote:
Whatever it is you dreamed to be or to do, it wasn’t meant for you. The sooner you get that through your head, the sooner you will learn to embrace what life has left to give you.
On the other hand, you could waste your precious time on this sullied orb taking guitar lessons or writing novels no one will read. Do you really want to be that pathetic guy in the book store talking about his unpublishable manuscript or the local politician who keeps losing elections?
There are certainly aspiring writers out there who are wasting their time and that of their put-upon writing groups. It’s sad when someone has scads of determination and not a shred of talent to back it up. Usually, though, I think that a little failure puts people off - the average mediocrities won’t devote their lives to something that affords them no gratification. The crazy guy in the book store is exactly that - a crazy guy.
If you enjoy, say, writing fan fiction, then you don’t need determination. On the other hand, it’s rather difficult to throw your entire life away over a dream you’ll never achieve, if only because bills need paying, dinner needs cooking, and so forth and so on. Most dreams are both part-time affairs and reasonably entertaining - I don’t think they require a cure from a travelling pessimist charging $50 a ticket.