According to the Little
Oxford English Dictionary, a fanatic is someone who is too enthusiastic
about something. Is that a bad thing?
If you want to win gold at the Olympics, if you want to
achieve spiritual enlightenment, if you want to become a world champion
Scrabble player, if you want to be great at just about anything, you must
practice as if your life depended on it: you must become a fanatic.
Becoming a fanatic will set you apart from the also-rans and
rank amateurs. Your fanaticism is the difference between you and those who are
not prepared to devote their lives to the achievement of their goals.
This message came to me in a blinding flash as I devoured
Stefan Fatsis’ book, Word Freak. Fatsis introduces his reader to the
world of elite Scrabble. It’s a world in which obsessive-compulsive word nerds
memorise tens of thousands of nonsense words and anagrams in an attempt to
become the world’s best Scrabblers. Their devotion to the game is both pathological
and inspirational.
You might scoff: “Who cares about Scrabble?” And you might
have a point: Scrabble is just a silly board game. But your goal is not silly. My
goal is not silly. And, speaking for myself, I am not prepared to be out out-fanaticked
by a bunch of Scrabble geeks.
Are you?