Lessons From the Wild True Story of Douglas Adams
It took decades to play out
Douglas Arthur is the author of the wildly popular book and movie series “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”. So far, there have been at least 15 million copies of his book sold, and the movie grossed over $100 million world wide.
I recently re-read the book, and one thing that really stood out to me that many people seem to have overlooked, is the intro to the book.
The intro begins with Mr. Arthur talking about when in 1971, he was taking a pub tour in Austria using a copy of “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Europe” to navigate his way around. After one late night of heavy drinking (to where he could barely walk), he stumbled into a field. This next section is in the author’s own words from the intro to the book:
As it is I went to lie in a field, along with my Hitch Hiker’s Guide to Europe, and when the stars came out it occurred to me that if only someone would write a Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy as well, then I for one would be off like a shot. Having had this thought I promptly fell asleep and forgot about it for six years.
Six years!
He forgot about what turned out to be one of the most successful works of his life for six years!
Whenever I read that I couldn’t help but think, how many ideas have I had that are great ideas, but they just haven’t materialized yet for one reason or another? I’ll bet you could ask yourself the same question.
A few years later when he went to Cambridge to get his degree in English, he became obsessed with the idea of writing a book that combined comedy and science fiction. So much so that he took on substantial debt and despair trying to make it a reality.
He caught his first “break” when he linked up with a BBC radio producer who happened to like his idea and premise he had written so far. So, the first part of this book aired on the BBC and it was received by crickets.
It wasn’t until September 1979 that the book gained some traction and was finally published in full. In January 1981 it was released as a 6 episode TV series on the BBC. Finally, all the way in 2005, it was made into a major motion picture.
So from the initial idea, all the way to the end product of being a published book, TV series and major film, took 34 years!
After reading a crazy story like this one, here are my 2 main takeaways:
- Great things take time, likely more time than you want it to.
- Just because something hasn’t happened yet, doesn’t mean it never will.
I hope you find this helpful, and of course if you are into books that combine comedy and science fiction (or movies), I would recommend checking out The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.
