{"id":47493,"date":"2022-07-24T15:53:19","date_gmt":"2022-07-24T15:53:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/marnix.nl\/homepage\/welkom\/?p=47493"},"modified":"2022-07-24T15:55:16","modified_gmt":"2022-07-24T15:55:16","slug":"the-book-that-fucked-me-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/marnix.nl\/homepage\/welkom\/2022\/07\/24\/the-book-that-fucked-me-up\/","title":{"rendered":"The book that fucked me up."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

When my first book was published, in 2016, it did very well.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just before it was available in stores and online, I was on national television to talk about my life, addiction, depression, and writing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That spontaneous appearance gave the launch a big boost.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was pretty amazing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For weeks I went to the largest bookstore in Amsterdam and checked my book that was presented in big numbers on a huge wall, and I walked around, dwelling in this new adventure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were more television appearances, I was on the radio, appeared on podcasts and in quite a few newspapers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was a dream debut.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the same time American author Mark Manson published ‘The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck’.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And while my book was generally available in many stores around that time, selling steadily, his first one was literally EVERYWHERE.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The success I had was totally, completely, absolutely dwarfed by his phenomenal sales.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It completely pushed my contentment away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It watered down my excitement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And I almost hated Mark Manson, for years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My book eventually sold 10,000 copies (which means bestseller status in the Netherlands), while his book sold a million, at first, and then way over that amount, to become one of the biggest self-help successes ever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While my book silently left the shelves in the stores after a few months, his book kept being available.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like I said: it was everywhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I saw it in huge orange piles at the airport.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In orange piles in stores in the UK, in Denmark, in Spain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And even when I flew to Norway last Tuesday, six years after it was published, Manson’s book was still there, prominently displayed in the bookstores of Amsterdam Airport.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having that book as a constant factor in my life since 2016, and as a relative but sharp contrast to my writing endeavors, has been an interesting, challenging thing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like I said: I’ve been really, really jealous, even angry and disappointed, for a couple of years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dream debut I was given had found its ultimate master, big time, and it changed my appreciation for what I’d accomplished in the worst way possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But of course it also taught me shit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This morning when I checked LinkedIn and saw almost everybody engaged in amazing programs, awesome webinars, juicy podcasts, and ridiculously successful commercial ventures, I was reminded of my Manson experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is what happens to us and with us, human beings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It’s part of the fucked up experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We can be totally living the dream, only to come across someone living a way bigger one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I’m not going to draw any moral conclusions here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And I’m also not going to say you should cherish what you have.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You’re smart enough to come up with your own stuff here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It’s just that sometimes life sucks, even when it really doesn’t.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

—<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Photo by @swetabh, for Unsplash)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When my first book was published, in 2016, it did very well. Just before it was available in stores and online, I was on national television to talk about my life, addiction, depression, and writing. That spontaneous appearance gave the launch a big boost. It was pretty amazing. For weeks I went to the largest […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":47494,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":""},"categories":[97,117,100,116,113,107,103,112],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/marnix.nl\/homepage\/welkom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47493"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/marnix.nl\/homepage\/welkom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/marnix.nl\/homepage\/welkom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marnix.nl\/homepage\/welkom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marnix.nl\/homepage\/welkom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47493"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/marnix.nl\/homepage\/welkom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47493\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47496,"href":"https:\/\/marnix.nl\/homepage\/welkom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47493\/revisions\/47496"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marnix.nl\/homepage\/welkom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47494"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/marnix.nl\/homepage\/welkom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47493"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marnix.nl\/homepage\/welkom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47493"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marnix.nl\/homepage\/welkom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47493"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}