The Valuable Lesson Ernest Hemingway Taught Solopreneurs

In his novels and short stories, Ernest Hemingway often wrote about time management, although he didn’t call it time management.

Hemingway’s routine was to wake at dawn every day and write for the entire morning.

In the afternoon he left his desk, filling his hours with adventure: fishing, swimming, big-game hunting, fighting in wars, womanizing, eating well, drinking plenty, laughing, debating, brawling.

He did not stay in one place. His home was the world: Havana, Paris, Pamplona, Key West, Ketchum.

From what I can remember of my Hemingway studies, his afternoons and evenings weren’t solitary. He surrounded himself with, or was surrounded by, people.

But Hemingway was famous! He had time and money to travel! If I had his time and money, I would fish for marlin, too.

Yes, but how did Hemingway become famous? He was not born into wealth; he attended public schools. That is true. It is also true that as a young man, he established an everyday pattern of work and rejuvenation, of writing and adventure.

Fame and fortune followed.

I suspect you and I have the work thing down pat. We go to the well and lean on that pump handle, hour after hour, late into the night.

But when we lack adventure, our pumping yields no water, only air.

Learn from Hemingway: recharge the well.