Anthony
Burgess was 40years old when he learnt that he had only one year to live. He
had a brain tumour that would kill him
within a year. He knows he had a battle on his hands. He was completely broke
at that time and didn’t have anything to live behind for his wife, Lynne, who
will soon become a widow.
Burgess
had never been a professional novelist in the past, but he always knew the
potential was inside him to be a writer. So, for the sole purpose of leaving
royalties behind for his wife, he put a piece of paper into a typewriter and
began writing. He had no certainty that
it would even been published, but he couldn’t think of anything else to do.
“It was
January of 1960,” he said, “and
according to the prognosis, I had a winter, a spring and a summer to live
through, and would die with the fall of the leaf”
Knowing
that he was about to die in a year time, Burgess wrote energetically and
passionately, finishing five and half novels before the end of the year.
The
goodnews was that Burgess did not die. His cancer had gone into remission and
then disappeared altogether. In his long and full life as a novelist (he is
best known for A clock-work orange), he wrote more than 70 books, but without
the death sentence from cancer, he won’t had been a writer.
Many of
us are like Anthony Burgess, hiding the greatness inside, waiting for some
external emergency to bring it out.
Like
Anthony Burgess asked, “If you have one year to live, what would
you do differently? What will you do to ensure that you leave a legacy behind
and that you are not forgotten even after you had gone?”
Waste no time and start making use of your
gifts, talents and hidden potential. Yes it’s in you!
Meet me
@ the TOP
Ben
Prolific Odes
(Whatsapp +2348166235519)
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