The world is not obliged to enjoy your work

“The world is not obliged to enjoy your work” – Werner Herzog, a celebrated German filmmaker once rebuked a young aspiring film director, who whined about finding no takers for his work. I picked this up from a book I am reading.

Well, I found this out real soon, right after my second blog post. I was sitting with my younger sister in the living room and noticing my new blog post notification she asked a little surprised, “You wrote another one?”. I guess she never expected me to write again, anyway I didn’t complain to her being judgmental. I fixed my gaze on her enthusiastically with hundreds of thoughts, ‘How will she react?’, ‘Whether she will like it more than the first one?’, “Maybe she will be able to connect better’, ‘I am sure she will find an improvement and will for sure feel proud of me!’. I was already so elated and proud of myself as I received some nice feedback from my friend circle. My amateur naiveness was quite visible on my face and slowly a smile of pride started curving on my face.

She opened the new post, scrolled down without reading the content and looked at me and said, “Let me give this a thumbs up as well”. I was puzzled and asked, “But, aren’t you gonna read it?”. She said, “I already have so much to read for my exams and I don’t want to increase my burden”. I was at the point of begging, “It’s just a 2-minute read”. “Not now!”, she retorted mercilessly.

I mean, how could she be so insensitive? Had she put a dagger through my heart, I would not have felt so much pain! I was looking forward to discussing my work with her you know, was expecting feedback, things I could improve upon, some nice words of appreciation from her and maybe I could get suggestions for the next blog post. In two seconds she pulled my ego from Everest level to mean sea level. I cursed her for being so unsympathetic and ruthless.

After my raging fury subsided, I thought over it. She sure did upset me, but she was honest. Going the conventional way and for the sake of morality, she could have appreciated my efforts. She is wise enough to set her priorities right. I mean who isn't? As long as people think there isn’t much to be missed out, why should they even bother? Well, everybody has their interest, struggle and life. Just because you spent so much time on something, doesn’t mean it can be enjoyed by everyone alike or by anyone at all. This brings up the next question, Why are we doing it and what is the expectation out of it? If we are creating something solely for others to enjoy, in my opinion, it should be given another thought. On the other hand, if one is enjoying the process and there is no expectation out of it, it will be less burdensome on you. With a lot of effort and little luck, I guess one will be able to get an audience with similar interest in the long run.

I will not forgive my sister for what she has done to me. Not until I improve my work and make her repent for ignoring my posts :-p

PS: If you are not someone like my sister and who happens to read my entire post, please share your feedback with me. Tell me how you felt and if you had similar experiences let me know. Till next time, Ciao...