Ernest Hemingway was up at dawn, done by noon. He wrote. Consistently.

The consistency and persistence made him great. Talent can only get you so far.

He could afford to keep that schedule when he made it big as an author. I'd imagine he was writing much more and kept longer hours early in his career.

Either way, he knocked off by noontime and usually took to the seas to go fishing. Quite a life. Or so I thought when I was a naive youngster.

There's probably more to life than drinking and fishing, as fun as it all may be...and is. That shotgun in Sun Valley is a testament to this theory.

Hemingway was a fantastic writer. I love most of his stuff, but in real life, he was a first-class jerk. Alienated friends and further alienated enemies.

Plus, he was a communist sympathizer. First in the Spanish Civil War and then he was alleged to have been a KGB mole during WWII. He got chummy with Castro when he lived in Cuba before he headed back to the States for good.

But despite his unsavory political whims, Hemingway’s was a life of adventure. He created a world all his own through his stories, novels, and "journalism." Pretty cool stuff.

I like fishing, but I don't make it a competition like Hemingway. I like to write, but I don't impugn the integrity of others who have something good to say—just for sport—as he did.

While Hemingway will forever be an American legend, I am a pretty simple guy and more of a homebody than anything. But I like helping people who have ideas they want to get out there in the world. Tearing them down just for kicks is odious behavior.

I coached baseball for years—it was a joy to teach the game to young ballplayers. Even more exciting was when our guys won. A lot of Hemingway's writing "opponents" weren't even aware they were part of some crazy game he had in mind.

I used to teach people how to fish, too. Trout fishing is a pleasant way to spend time. At it's heart, fly fishing is a battle of "man versus self" (or man versus the wits of the pencil eraser-sized brain of a trout). That's really all it is.

Recently, I've been helping people create their own "worlds" within our loose independent media structure. There is competition out there for sure. There "will be blood."

But let's first fight the "man versus self" battle.

(Then we might go for a milkshake after it's all said and done.)

At O'Leary & Company, we cater to entrepreneurs and will soon be adding a group "coaching" aspect to our program.

Book a time to talk shop. Or fishing. Or baseball. Or the great American novelists...

As always,

Brian