Vic Baranco

Magnificent Obsession

by Vic Baranco, November 1990

I am really interested in my life and am fascinated by it. All my life I have been envious — both my parents were talented musicians and they had a "magnificent obsession." Although they took very good care of me and I am sure that they were interested in me, their attention was always drawn back to music until the day they died. They had the world's most miserable marriage. They got married and divorced twice. Their marriage lasted 51 years. What kept them together was that they were both captivated by this magnificent obsession.

I tried it with the Marine Corps and it didn't work. I tried it with football but I really didn't care that much. I wasn't obsessed by football or any sport. The closest I got to obsessed with a sport was tennis.

I had a really good marriage with Suzie and I certainly was active all the time but I wasn't obsessed with anything. I was just pointed in a specific direction. I wasn't obsessed with the business.

Then I had that flash to perfection and I figured out the whole thing and it was really fascinating. It was better than crossword puzzles but I wasn't obsessed with teaching the world anything or teaching anybody else anything. It was just a good gig.

I put the More philosophy together and I tested it out by creating Morehouse. Then I was pretty much through and I was going to coast on down, stick around at the party and shmooze a little. I was pretty much doing that, and then bam! This thing happened to me. The magnificent obsession that I thought only hit you as a young man, hit me at 42! I had a thunderbolt experience with Cindy.

I fell in love and all of a sudden, everything I was doing meant something. From the time I met Cindy, I never thought the party was going too slowly again. Nothing was dull anymore because I had this magnificent obsession. What it did was put me into my life. Somehow I used her as an excuse to pay even more attention to my own life. I realized from that point that if I had — I did it exactly right — but if I had known about getting this magnificent obsession, my life could have gone a lot smoother.

What I am telling you is, without giving up being interesting, if you will direct your attention toward being interested, you might stumble across your own magnificent obsession. And it doesn't have to be a tall blond. A tall blond was the last thing I thought I was going to end up with.

Somewhere you have to pay enough attention for whatever excuse you can use to have your life be worth living, before it trickles out of your open veins. Don't try to make an impression because you'll fail. The only way that you are going to make a good impression on the world or anybody else is to be interested in your own life, the stuff you've created, the stuff that passes before your face. Just be interested in that and the whole thing solves itself. If you really want to make an impression on the world be interested in it.

About Vic First Founder's Day by Lilyan Binder First Morehouse by Malinda Kerr Bussey How I Met Vic by Brian Shekeloff For Your Love Author unknown Gift of Time by Joe Hillis What's in a Name? by Sugar Ann Goens-Baranco Vic, or Being Right is the Wrongest Thing I Do by Tom Baker	Articles by Vic Flash to Perfection Johnny Story Pineawayalonia Comments on Perfection and Lying
For more information, please contact Lafayette Morehouse in California, at 925-930-6972 or by email at: registrar@lafayettemorehouse.com