visa-funded wisdom

I bought a full year of Masterclass a few days ago, purely for the David Sedaris class on storytelling and humor. I figured, if I didn’t watch anything else the whole year, his teachings would be worth the $120.

I did watch his 3 1/2 hour class in one sitting on the first day… and now I’m officially obsessed with Masterclass.

I love learning and taking classes on subjects I’m interested in, in general. I would, and have, spent my very last dollars on an online class I just had to take. I’ll also spend my last dollars on food that makes no sense to buy, considering my financial situation. I’ve seen my friend Bethany gladly spend her last $10 on second-hand clothes more times than I can count — so very Carrie Bradshaw of her, who once said that, sometimes, when she had a choice between buying dinner and the latest issue of Vogue, she’d buy Vogue because it fed her soul more than dinner. Seems what we’re willing to spend our last precious few coins on says a lot about our values.

I didn’t buy my year of Masterclass with my last coins — I purchased it with my credit card, money I don’t even technically have yet. What does that say about me, I wonder?

I’ve since watched a class on screenwriting by Mindy Kaling, not because I want to write a comedy show pilot, but because I appreciate her as a person. Her tenacity, confidence, and resourcefulness are admirable.

I can learn from anyone I hold in high regard, no matter the specifics of their livelihood. As long as they’re passionate about what they do, I’m eager to listen, notebook in hand.

What I mostly “shop for” in classes I take is not tangible strategy-type advice, but perspectives I find useful and stories I can see myself in, which both help me feel that what I want to create is possible for me.

Today, Martha Stewart was my teacher. I am in no way a type-A perfectionist control freak like she is (my perfectionism is much more insidious than that), but, much to my surprise, I saw a lot of myself in her.

It seems much of her success comes from her deep well of curiosity and love of learning new things daily in a variety of areas, the way she thinks both broadly and in tiny detail about what she’s making, connecting dots that most others would not see, and her deep love of what she does. She said she thinks about business 24/7, because she’s obsessed with what she’s doing.⠀

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