Candy Store Hours

In his autobiography I, Asimov, largely written from a hospital bed while suffering from the kidney failure that would ultimately cause his death, famous science fiction and popular science writer Isaac Asimov tried to explain his prolific writing and workaholic nature. He went back to his childhood in New York City, where his father, an immigrant from Russia (oops, I mean the Soviet Union) in the early 1920s, did what single-proprietor shop-owners used to do: he essentially wed most of his waking existence to his business, which was a candy store, opening early in the morning and staying open until halfway through the night. Asimov dubbed his regimen “candy store hours” and incorporated this very disciplined and focused approach to his own life with his writing.

The general tendency of people nowadays, of course, is to hold up leisure time as a sign of affluence and fulfillment. A person who is so single-minded that (s)he devotes the major part of daily life to specific projects is often regarded as unbalanced and/or fanatical. The saying “get a life” itself carries the connotation that the one being so admonished needs to lighten up and take it easy. And I’m one of those who esteem leisure time. But there is something to be said for Asimov’s lifestyle as well.

There is a crucial difference between slaving away on behalf of someone else’s agenda and passionately pursuing your own very challenging goals. There may be an equal amount of effort, sweat, and tears expended in each of these, but one road will lead to anxiety, resentment, and emotional distress while the other will strengthen character, bestow confidence, and generally make life more interesting and inviting.

I have my own personal projects, any one of which I know I could excel in were I to apply Asimov’s “candy store hours” degree of devotion to it. And I’m wondering if this may not be the road I need to put myself on, instead of splitting up into several projects that I am not wholeheartedly pursuing. At least I can perform a test, for a designated time period (say, one month) in which I concentrate intensively on one single project. And then evaluate the results. Why not?

Another observation I must make about Isaac Asimov’s father and his candy store is more literal. Mom-and-pop store owners, at least as I see it, often aren’t as serious as they need to be in keeping their businesses open long enough in the day to accommodate different customers. They are often closed on Sundays as well. But then they will complain when a corporation comes into town and “steals” their business. I personally like small locally owned stores. But I get more than a little peeved when I go to one of them to do business and find out that they are closed because it’s a holiday like Columbus Day or that they decided to go on vacation somewhere!