High agency habits: George Bernard Shaw

George Mack

High agency habits: George Bernard Shaw

1. The only person to win a Nobel Prize in Literature and an Oscar.

2. How did he escape life as a bank cashier? He wrote 5 pages a day first thing for 9 years. Every single day.

3. He called his writing hut (below) "London", so whenever unwanted visitors contacted him -- visitors could be told he was "visiting the capital"

4. He designed his writing hut on a turntable. This meant he could get sun shining on him regardless of the time of the day. (See his hut below)

5. "The secret of being miserable is to have the leisure to bother about whether you are happy or not" - George Bernard Shaw

6. After 4 years of being a cashier, he left his job saying: "I only have one life and I am not going to spend it an office desk"

7. One evening he waited outside of a friends house for 20 minutes. Too shy and lacking on initiative to knock on the door. "Should I do it? Will I be disturbing them?"

To overcome this anxiety and lack of initiative, he joined a debate society in the public halls.

George credits this decision with him going from a shy kid to becoming one of the best speakers of his generation.

8. "I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work the more I live. I rejoice in life for its own sake. Life is not ‘brief candle’ for me. It is sort of a splendid torch which I have got hold of for the moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations.” - George Bernard Shaw

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Table of contents

High agency habits: George Bernard Shaw

1. The only person to win a Nobel Prize in Literature and an Oscar.

2. How did he escape life as a bank cashier? He wrote 5 pages a day first thing for 9 years. Every single day.

3. He called his writing hut (below) "London", so whenever unwanted visitors contacted him -- visitors could be told he was "visiting the capital"

4. He designed his writing hut on a turntable. This meant he could get sun shining on him regardless of the time of the day. (See his hut below)

5. "The secret of being miserable is to have the leisure to bother about whether you are happy or not" - George Bernard Shaw

6. After 4 years of being a cashier, he left his job saying: "I only have one life and I am not going to spend it an office desk"

7. One evening he waited outside of a friends house for 20 minutes. Too shy and lacking on initiative to knock on the door. "Should I do it? Will I be disturbing them?"

To overcome this anxiety and lack of initiative, he joined a debate society in the public halls.

George credits this decision with him going from a shy kid to becoming one of the best speakers of his generation.

8. "I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work the more I live. I rejoice in life for its own sake. Life is not ‘brief candle’ for me. It is sort of a splendid torch which I have got hold of for the moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations.” - George Bernard Shaw

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