Songbook #1: There Will Be Time

Fireflies and When You're Ready

With Wortel Strydom at the Koos Bekker’s Billions book launch

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The Whole Of The Moon

This is the first edition of the Songbook, where I’m hoping to create a few enjoyable moments for the readers of this “publication”. Similar to how music punctuates our days, I aim to use songs I love as writing prompts for things of interest. I will include a Spotify link to each song.

If what I’m hoping to achieve with this newsletter could be captured in a song, I would say it would be The Whole of the Moon by The Waterboys. Like the composer, I love to marvel at the people and things that help me see The Whole of the Moon. The song was also released in October 1985, the month that I was born. But that’s neither here nor there.

My favourite version of The Whole of the Moon is a cover performed by Frightened Rabbit in Edinburgh on Hogmanay 2012 (Scottish New Year’s Eve). I’ve comfortably watched the YouTube video hundreds of times, and it fills me with great satisfaction to see Scott Hutchison produce something wonderful. You can expect to see more of Frightened Rabbit here, such as this mini-essay I wrote last year.

You climbed on the ladder
And you know how it feels
To get too high
Too far
Too soon
You saw the whole of the moon

The original is, of course, world class too.

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Unfinished Business

I’ve published two new essays in the past two weeks on this Substack, which I am really chuffed about. I’m working on building a daily writing habit and hope to publish many more posts in the months to come. A quick summary of the two essays follow:

• Who Wants To Be A Billionaire is about my friend, Wortel Strydom, his adventures in television game shows, and his excellent book, Koos Bekker’s Billions. Wortel is a special guy, and I am so pleased to see that the book is Exclusive Books bestselling non-fiction title at the moment.

• A True Champion draws on a life lesson I learnt from watching a horse race with my late dad in 2009. In truth, I needed to find a way of communicating how incredible I think Damian Willemse has been playing for the Springboks and the Stormers this year and this was my roundabout way of doing that. Damian has really stoked my love for the game of rugby this year.

As you may have noticed from these essays, I’m not committing myself to writing in any particular niche at this stage. Through writing in public, I hope to explore my love of writing and improve as a writer.

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When You’re Ready

In the way that my favourite book, Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, was written as a love letter to his son, Brian Fallon’s When You’re Ready is a love letter to his daughter. It’s the song I’ve listened to the most this year and I can’t get enough of it.

We went to London earlier this year for a family holiday, and I was lucky enough to see Brian Fallon live at Shepherd’s Bush Empire with a few mates. The opening song that night was When You’re Ready, and he went on to play the most wonderful set (if you ever wanted a Best of Brian Fallon, I made this playlist from the setlist that night).

I can't tell you who to love
I don't know who that might be
I hope they cheer you up like crazy, sweep you right up off your feet
Though I don't want you to grow up
Cause I don't want you to leave
When you're ready to choose someone
Make sure they love you half as much as me

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Time In A Bottle

Jules and I are expecting our first child in less than ten days. I am so excited to be a dad and can’t believe that I’m going to meet my boy in a few days. We’ve loved spending the last few weekends tinkering in the nursery and thinking about how we want to approach raising the little man.

We have been showered with so much love and support in these past few months. I can’t think of another time in my life when I have felt so supported.

Jules has had a good pregnancy so far, and we’re enjoying this time of our lives. I suspect I may have more to say on this topic in the future.

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Something Good

A couple of years ago, I signed up for David Perell’s newsletter, and this has had a profoundly positive effect on my life. Each week his emails have exposed me to new ways of thinking (and thinkers), and I have wanted to enrol in his online course, Write of Passage pretty much since I learnt about it.

From what I've seen, David’s vision to create "the business school of the future", is well on track. You just have to look at the alumni from the course’s impact to see how the tremendous impact that he and his course if having on the world.

When I saw that Write of Passage partnered with O'Shaughnessy Ventures to offer 10 full-ride scholarships to the next cohort, I had to apply (see more here). If you're looking to maximise your impact through writing and creating content online, and the cost is an obstacle, you should apply too.

While it's perhaps counter-intuitive to rally people to apply for the same scholarship that you are vying for, it would be great if they filled those spots with excellent candidates (which made me think of you).

Given the fact that this publication has literally dozens of readers, I’m sure they’ll be inundated with applications from South Africa.