If you have not read or listened to or watched Shakespeare, it's OK. You are forgiven. But if you are a person with dreams of starting your own company or writing a book or taking any creative work stored in your mind and making it real, there is something for you in Hamlet's famous soliloquy (Act 3, Scene 1). You can watch this short speech below - this version by Kenneth Branagh in the full length motion picture version:
OK, now you can officially say "Yeah, I've seen Hamlet's famous soliloquy. Brilliant!"
In describing his desire to play Hamlet, Branagh says he kept that desire a secret. He did so because so many had gone before him. Could his version add anything to the many incredible performances over the years? The reality is that there are precious few new ideas and many more add-ons or re-do's that improve on or re-surface the prior one. But that's OK! The market will not penalize you for this . . .
So re-reading Hamlet brings up a number of comparisons for me with my life and with Quixoting™ (this blog):
1. Hamlet was a melancholy (sad) figure. As I've said in prior posts, those who sit on their ideas and let them waste away in a bottom drawer will also be sad. By not acting on ideas that you once thought were pretty cool, you leave your ego with no choice but to assume that those ideas were never really very good in the first place, right?
2. The question Hamlet asks can be asked of us all. To be or not to be? Translated as: Are you going to act on your ideas or wallow in what could be? In this tough climate where jobs are being lost in big chunks, starting your own business or acting on another money making venture should be a very real possibility to consider. If you are out of work or fear the possibility, shake the dust off your ideas as an alternative to building a job search strategy.
Don Quixote lived life on impulse (mad or not). There is an interesting comparative essay that I could write some day! Not today, though.
ASK YOURSELF - Do You Have The Hamlet Complex? Me, not anymore!
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