I'm always looking for ways to get my common sense message about career Subliminal360 and life success across to my clients. That's why I was struck by a passage in Tracy Chevalier's new book, Remarkable Creatures. If you don't know Tracy Chevalier, you should. For my money she is one of the best novelists writing today. Her first book, Girl With a Pearl Earring, was a huge bestseller and made into a movie starring Scarlett Johansson.
In Remarkable Creatures she tells the story of two women fossil hunters in early 19th century England. Her protagonists are a middle aged spinster and a young girl. Both are committed fossil hunters. Here is how Elizabeth Philpot, the spinster, describes committed fossil hunters...
"Hunters spend hour after hour, day after day, out in all weather, our faces sunburnt, our hair tangled by the wind, our eyes in a permanent squint, our nails ragged and our fingertips torn, our hands chapped. Our boots are trimmed with mud and stained with seawater. Our clothes are filthy by the end of the day. Often we find nothing, but we are patient and hardworking and not put off by coming back empty handed...Those serious about fossils know their search is never over. There will always be more specimens to discover and study, for, as with people, each fossil is unique. There can never be too many."