More Simple Truths For Our Troubled Times

August 2, 2024

   Here are a few more lessons learned in my 25 years of running True West magazine.

More Simple Truths for Our Troubled Times

   If you want a new idea, read an old book. Or, in our case, read an old magazine. I had everyone and their brother telling me in 1999 not to change the magazine—"If it ain't broke, don't fix it," is a line I got almost daily. The problem was, True West was severely broken (the newsstand had gone from 250,000 sales per issue down to 6,000) and we were losing $30k a month. 

The 1958 version

   So, for starters, I went back and read the original magazines that Joe Small had created in the 1950s (that is a perfect example cover, above). To my surprise, I found that they covered rodeo, they talked about movies, they did so many things we no longer did, but the main thing I noticed is they told good stories. When I asked Joe's widow, Elizabeth, what went wrong, she said, "The footnote crowd took over." A classic take on the tail wagging the dog. Note to self: the truth is not facts lined up. The magazine you are reading today is more like the original magazine. Or, as one cranky historian recently put it, "The ancients have stolen all our best ideas!"

The old True West is an eye opener

• Wanna stand out and be different? Reject the current vilification of everything. It's my belief, people come to True West to get away from the current awfulness. Put another way, if you truly want to succeed: Go where they ain't.

• Nothing changes more than the past. As a matter of fact, every time history is retold, it moves a little. To wit: "Anyone who believes you can't change history has never tried to write his memoirs." 

—David Ben-Gurion

• Pay attention: the universe is trying to help you. I have a long story I won't bore you with now, but utilizing my reticular activator, I heard the word "Hearst" out of the corner of my hearing and it completely altered our future (Full blown anecdote on request).

• The past is a foreign country. They do things differently there.

• "The meaning of life is to find your gift. The purpose of life is to give it away." 

—Picasso

• We are Davids in a swarm of Goliaths. Keep moving. It will help you avoid getting stepped on.

• Life is beautiful if you are on the road to somewhere.

• "Everything you say should be true but not everything true should be said." 

—Voltaire

• The perfect recipe for life is: something to do, someone to love and something to hope for.

• Courage never goes out of style.

• "Do silly things. Foolishness is a great deal more vital and healthy than our straining and striving after a meaningful life." 

—Anton Chekhov

• "When you give yourself over to art's deception, it becomes magic."

—Marco Tempest

• We need to find new common myths. In fact, our only hope as a country is to find new common myths. Why?

   "Large numbers of strangers can cooperate successfully by believing in common myths."

—Yuval Noah Harari

• Sometimes you have to jump off a cliff and figure it out on the way down.

We support our museums!

• And finally, and most importantly, we must support local authors, museums, historical societies and bookstores. 

"If we don't support each other, who will?"

—The True West Mantra