Find What You Love and Be a Total Dick About It

Everyone has something they’re a dick about.

Something they love so much that when they talk about it, they turn into a complete and total asshole.

You can’t talk to people about these things.

Try and you hit a wall of passion so fierce it quickly becomes obvious that if you have a difference of opinion, their sheer incredulity that you could be so unaccountably wrong about ANYTHING will reduce you to ash.

Example.

If you ask me, Brand New is the best band in the entire world.

Nothing about this statement seems debatable to me. And while I’m okay with you thinking otherwise—you’re allowed to be wrong, after all—if you aren’t at least willing to concede to the majority of my points, I just can’t understand you. On a base, molecular level.

Final Fantasy VI is a better game than FF7. It just is, it just is, it just is.

You can disagree, but I’ll be able to pinpoint all of the exact reasons you disagree and pick them apart—because you are, in fact, wrong.

And writing? God. Don’t talk to me about writing. Just don’t. For both our sakes. (Especially exclamation points.)

These are just a few examples.

Why would you discuss these things with me, other than to tell me how fucking right I am?

I mean, cool, disagree. You can point out flaws, and I’ll acknowledge them. But I’ll still know that despite their flaws, these things I love are better than anything else. Their flaws exist to make them more perfect.

You can’t talk to me about these things, at least not with any hope of changing my opinion in any appreciable way.

And that’s okay.

I’m flexible on nearly everything else in my life. There are a few things, though, where I brook no real malleability.

These things are real, and pure, and perfect, and utterly sacrosanct.

And I am perfectly right in my opinion about how perfectly wrong you are about yours. But it’s not about me.

Like I said, EVERYONE has something they’re a complete dick about.

Something they feel so strongly about they turn into an unmanageable, insufferable, unrepentant asshole when they talk about it.

And that is one of the most beautiful things in the world.

So, if you don’t know yours, you’re in trouble. You’re very probably fucked. And boring.

You either don’t know yourself or haven’t experienced enough of life to find these things.

Find them.

Be a dick about them.

Bukowski said, “Find what you love and let it kill you.”

I agree. But on the way to letting it kill you, let it annoy the shit out of other people.

Talk about it until people know you love it, until even the most loosely connected acquaintances can’t help but think of you when it gets brought up.

Love it. Love it. Love it. Down to the marrow of your bones.

Found it? Good.

Congratulations. You’ve just taken a very important step towards building your personality AND your personal brand.

Next stop: success.