Alexander Payne's Blog

An American investment banker was at the pier of a small coastal Mexican village when a small boat with just one fisherman docked. Inside the small boat were several large yellowfin tuna. The American complimented the Mexican on the quality of his fish and asked how long it took to catch them.The Mexican replied, “only a little while.”The American then asked why didn’t he stay out longer and catch more fish?The Mexican said he had enough to support his family’s immediate needs.The American then asked, “but what do you do with the rest of your time?”The Mexican fisherman said, “I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, take siestas with my wife, Maria, and stroll into the village each evening where I sip wine, and play guitar with my amigos. I have a full and busy life.”The American scoffed. “I have an MBA from Harvard, and can help you,” he said. “You should spend more time fishing, and with the proceeds, buy a bigger boat. With the proceeds from the bigger boat, you could buy several boats, and eventually you would have a fleet of fishing boats. Instead of selling your catch to a middle-man, you could sell directly to the processor, eventually opening up your own cannery. You could control the product, processing, and distribution,” he said. “Of course, you would need to leave this small coastal fishing village and move to Mexico City, then Los Angeles, and eventually to New York City, where you will run your expanding enterprise.”The Mexican fisherman asked, “But, how long will this all take?”To which the American replied, “Oh, 15 to 20 years or so.”“But what then?” asked the Mexican.The American laughed and said, “That’s the best part. When the time was right, you would announce an IPO, and sell your company stock to the public and become very rich. You would make millions!”“Millions – then what?”The American said, “Then you could retire. Move to a small coastal fishing village where you could sleep late, fish a little, play with your kids, take siestas with your wife, and stroll to the village in the evenings where you could sip wine and play guitar with your amigos.”

Dealing with a breakup? You have read all those self-help books and learned what women from Venus do when men from Mars leave them, but still don’t feel better? Or, perhaps you are just a guy who is taking it all in silently and not sharing the pain with anyone over a glass of beer because your buddies had enough of that talk and threatened to smash Toronto’s best brew on top on your head if you mention her name again? Okay. I am being a little dramatic here (we all know that good beer is not wasted in Toronto), but my point is: I feel your pain and I know it all too well. Coincidentally, my name is Alexander Payne and if that is not too cheesy for you, let me continue on the subject.I have been dumped more times than I care to admit and every time a woman would walk away from my life, she would leave me in an emotional chaos and unclear mind filled with questions. Why? Why me? Why now? Why like this? What have I done wrong? Ouch! The last one is extremely painful. And the most unnecessary one too, because six months later, I would be sitting on the Sugar beach sipping my coffee and enjoying the breeze, when a sudden realization would strike: I did nothing wrong, and I had to move on.Often the heart is just not ready to accept that it’s over. And this is why I had decided to pour it all out in a book I calledA Beautiful Life, with the "f" in "life" mischievously dropping out of the word on the book cover. Is it A Beautiful Lie?" Of course it is, but it’s also "A Beautiful Life." A life when one overcomes the adversities and gets over pain. A life in which one learns to cope with difficult emotions and finds a way to happiness. At least, that it what I want for you. I want you to be happy and I want to help as a person who casually shares the greatest relationship wisdom you did not want to hear from your friends or family (after they spat out their teeth trying to tell you). Or the wisdom that you understood from all those self-help books, but that remain as a rational explanation of things touching your mind, without the ability to heal the heart.It comes out as my debut work in April 2017 and it tells a story about a relationship between Alex who lives in London, UK (where everything so much more romantic in the Old World) and Anna who meet each other by writing the old-fashioned e-mails and develop their relationship that way. You may ask "E-mails, in today’s DNA of text messaging and dating apps?" Yes, Yes and Yes. E-mails build a buffer that allows one to express the emotions from a safe place. I’ll let you feel empathy for me, and through that feeling shake off a little bit of your own burden. I will not let you lose yourself in an easy going “boy meets girl” and “everything in life is perfect” kind of a book (you have Netflix for that). Join me and/or Alex on a journey to finding happiness and find out what he will do try and make it true.