"What most people don't realise they need is clarity. Clarity in their career, clarity in their home life, clarity in their passions. Clarity is what makes a good idea into a successful one, regardless of anything else.
“Of those who understand this, only a small percentage know how to obtain this clarity. For, you see, it does not come from a thick wallet, nor does it come from a degree and it doesn't even come from happiness in general. The truth of the world is that one does not receive clarity, one earns it. And to earn it, you must not be in a position in which you expect it. You must separate yourself from what you think life is about and allow yourself the unexpected and in that, if you're lucky, clarity will find you.”
“The new book is simply titled Clarity and you say he has been working on this since your childhood?”
“From what I understand, those were the final words my father put to paper before he left. From his own notes, he has been working on this book since he was a family man.”
“Do his actions bother you still?”
“He didn't say goodbye. There was no transparent excuse. Just one day, he had left. I was eight at the time and for a long while after, just the thought of the man made me angry. But time has this strange way of blunting things and now he is just a memory I sometimes forget is real.”
“What do you remember of your father?”
“Not too much that I know is real. A lot of it is coloured from growing up without him. Stories from Mum and other people that knew him. It’s hard to know which is actually true and which is biased, you know? I remember him bringing home all kinds of weird stuff, some of which Mum kept, all of which is in storage now.
“I remember one time he had all these old toys. My sister and I weren't allowed to touch them and it made us mad. But I mean, we were kids, and they probably weren't toys, or they were antiques or something.”
“Some people say he was a con man, a scam artist.”
“Looking back on it, given what I've read and all that, odds are yeah, some of his endeavours weren't exactly above board but I don't know exactly how beyond the law he went though. But those things he did, legal or not, they are what kept food on our table, what paid for the electricity and water and all that. Plus, when he left, I was eight. I had no way of knowing, back then, what he was doing. In retrospect, the fact that he kept all those things so far from his family, aside from the odd table full of crap episodes, is rather amazing to me.”
“Tell that to the people who lost their pensions to him.”
“I know. I understand and I get it. He wasn't a nice man, and I would never suggest that he was. I can’t speak on him from any other point than his son, and a son he hasn't seen for almost 30 years now.”
“Why did you choose to study him, given the obvious baggage that comes along with him?”
“Because he is, legitimately, an interesting person. He has name recognition without any real reason; he built a business out of nothing and when he was done with it, burned it all to the ground and got away with no bad press. He scammed thousands of people, and faced no criminal charges but above all, and this is the important part, he was never wrong.”
“What do you mean?”
“Mum would tell my sister and I stories about Dad when she was in a good mood, and she would always end up getting mad at him and then get mad at us for not being mad at him.”
“What do you mean?”
“Look, you have to understand that I haven't seen my father since I was eight, I never got to see the part of him Mum did; the adult part of him. I never experienced that side of Dad and what I did get to see is bent by time, and hearsay. What I know now is the result of almost a decade of research on the man and itself could be inaccurate.”
“Go on.”
“Dad, according to Mum, was an incredibly frustrating man. He would have all these ideas and in his head, he would know exactly how it was supposed to look at the end, given what he had to work with at the start, but that middle part was where he fell down. The thing is, though, that no matter how many people told him he was wrong, or his plan wouldn't work, every single time, the end result would be piece for piece how he laid it out at the start.”
“Every time?”
“I'm just going on what I've learnt. And believe me, the evidence is compelling.”
“What evidence specifically?”
“Dad wrote everything down. Everything. It’s really quite remarkable.”
“Which brings us back around to the point.”
“Clarity.”
“Arguably your fathers best work.”
“Certainly his most legitimate one.”
“Ha, indeed. His writings on clarity have inspired thousands in the ten years since they were published.”
“More power to the man. If he’s watching, then he should be proud of what that work has spawned, however, you have to understand that this is not a new idea.”
“No?”
“Its an old idea that he re-purposed. Couple accessible language with his name and you will get an audience. Do it 15 years since anyone heard anything from him and you get headlines.”
“That almost sounds like you think he was after headlines.”
“I don't know what he is after. It doesn't matter anyway.”
“Why’s that?”
“Look at the other people he is grouped with. Someone else would have made the headlines. Dad just had to be first.”
“So you still would have written about him regardless?”
“Probably. And in its own way, it was exciting to see his name on something again.”
“So what now?”
“Well, it’s obvious isn’t it?”
“Humour us.”
“Well, I've reached a point in my research where I cant learn anything new from existing sources and despite the usual rumours, I know that he is still around, doing all those things still. So I think it’s time I went out and met my father.”