I'm calling it Salieri Syndrome. It occurs in people who are called in their brains and hearts to careers in which it's not enough to be good or even excellent at what one does; in order to be successful at these jobs a person must be one among many hundreds, thousands, or even millions.
Athletes. Rock musicians. Concert musicians. Composers. Artists. Writers. Actors. Dancers. And so on.
Llewyn Davis suffered from Salieri Syndrome. So did Antonio Salieri. Alas, so do I. That's why I know about it.
We Salieri Syndrome sufferers work hard at the jobs we've chosen. We're told we're good, people love what we do. Just not enough to pay us very much for it. We may keep at it for years, decades, even, before accepting that we're not going to make a living at what we're doing. And we're never going to shine. No best-seller, no rock hit, no Broadway play, no starring movie role, no Carnegie Hall date, no NBA contract, no exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art.
So we find something else to do to earn our bread. Out there there are doctors, accountants, computer programmers, teachers, nurses, you name it, who've dealt with Salieri Syndrome and who now work at careers which, though they may be gratifying, don't define them.
Ironically, some of us eventually discover we have a real ability, an ability we wish we had for our perceived vocation, for something else. Something maybe we should have recognized in ourselves in the first place.
Salieri and I ended up being decent piano teachers. I'm not sure what Llewyn David would have ended up being good at if he'd existed. Well, he had issues.
Any one else kicking around out there with Salieri Syndrome?
Athletes. Rock musicians. Concert musicians. Composers. Artists. Writers. Actors. Dancers. And so on.
Llewyn Davis suffered from Salieri Syndrome. So did Antonio Salieri. Alas, so do I. That's why I know about it.
We Salieri Syndrome sufferers work hard at the jobs we've chosen. We're told we're good, people love what we do. Just not enough to pay us very much for it. We may keep at it for years, decades, even, before accepting that we're not going to make a living at what we're doing. And we're never going to shine. No best-seller, no rock hit, no Broadway play, no starring movie role, no Carnegie Hall date, no NBA contract, no exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art.
So we find something else to do to earn our bread. Out there there are doctors, accountants, computer programmers, teachers, nurses, you name it, who've dealt with Salieri Syndrome and who now work at careers which, though they may be gratifying, don't define them.
Ironically, some of us eventually discover we have a real ability, an ability we wish we had for our perceived vocation, for something else. Something maybe we should have recognized in ourselves in the first place.
Salieri and I ended up being decent piano teachers. I'm not sure what Llewyn David would have ended up being good at if he'd existed. Well, he had issues.
Any one else kicking around out there with Salieri Syndrome?
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