What We Can Learn From Francis Bourgeois

Give it some beans!

The Trainspotter | Introduction

A man stands on a bridge - Barmouth Bridge in Wales - with a GoPro strapped to his head. A steam train trundles by and the man whoops and cheers.

‘’Give it some beans!’’ he yells.

The train whistles and the man jumps up and down, giggling with glee, as the train passes under the bridge. This man is Francis Bourgeois and he’s a trainspotter. But he’s not any old trainspotter - he is a TikTok sensation, influencing many with his passion and enthusiasm for trains.

So, what can we learn from Bourgeois?

Finding Your Passion

When I watched Bourgeois for the first time, I was happy that he was sharing his passion for trainspotting with the world, but I was frustrated that I didn’t have a clear passion like Bourgeois. Why hadn’t God pointed down to me and said, ‘’Your passion is x’’? Why did it seem so clear to Bourgeois?

But what I didn’t realise was that Bourgeois had pieced together his passion over time. It had been a winding path, worked out through self-enquiry. Through thoughtfully mixing his skills and his interests, Bourgeois is now living his passion.

Here’s how he did it:

1. Bourgeois liked trains as a child. 🚂

2. When he went to sixth form, he put away this interest to conform at school and be ‘cool’. This led to him selling his model train set and putting away his passion for trainspotting. 😞

3. He got into mountain biking, but he was unhappy. 🚴‍♂️

4. He studied mechanical engineering at University. 👨‍💻

5. He graduated and got an internship at a car company. 🚗

6. Over lockdown, he rediscovered his love for trains and trainspotting. 🚆

7. He would trainspot whenever he had free time, filming videos for his TikTok. 📷

8. He got lots of attention on TikTok, quit his job at the car company and made trainspotting his living 🎉

Bourgeois explains why he finds his work meaningful. For him, it comes down to making people happy:

‘In my nature, I just always want to make people feel happy, or try to improve people’s situations…One of the most meaningful things was when a young trainspotter messaged me saying: ‘I used to be bullied for my hobby. And now people respect me for it.’ In that moment, I basically helped my younger self become free. So that was powerful.”

‘Younger self’ can be translated to ‘true self’. Bourgeois’ passion, his true self, was put back together in adulthood from the moments of joy he had experienced with trains and trainspotting in his childhood. He had rekindled his childhood passion, which has now become his career.

Some people realise what they loved as children is what they want to pursue as adults, but for others it may not be so simple. The philosopher Alain De Botton explains that,

‘Our true self is like a vase that's been smashed inside us and there's just shards of pottery everywhere and everyone's goal is to try and reassemble it…all we see is tiny fragments…[To] assemble an accurate picture of what you want to do try and collect every moment where there is…a little beep of interest, the temperature rises because you're thinking yeah I like that… What was your peak moment that day?…Your true working identity you have to assemble and it takes a hugely long time.’

This is a very comforting message. To understand what we find meaningful and rewarding, we must take stock of the peak moments of our days - the moments we get a buzz of excitement or interest. Bourgeois pieced together what made him happy, put together the ‘shards of pottery’, and now he is a prolific trainspotter on TikTok. Somebody watching his videos might believe that this passion came naturally, but it takes work to understand ourselves.

We must be curious and reflective to know what we want to do in this life.

Meaningful Work

Why do we seek meaningful work? If I sell bread and you buy my bread and eat it as you walk down the street - I feel like I have made a small but meaningful difference in the world. I have given you pleasure and satisfied your need. If I work in an office proofreading court documents, I don’t get direct and immediate feedback. My documents get filed and someone at some point will benefit from my work, but I will never meet this person. It is hard to measure the pleasure I have given them. Corporate jobs like this can feel soulless and meaningless because your positive difference isn’t obvious. This is why people’s dream jobs may be owning a bakery or independent cafe, where meaning is obvious and plentiful. Being a cog in a massive corporate machine requires a lot of imagination in order to find meaning. You may not get a pat on the back or even see the positive outcome of your work.

I see meaning as consisting of three things. The first is universal, the second is preferred and the third is optional:

1. Reducing the suffering of others. As argued by the philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer, ‘Pleasure and well-being is negative and suffering positive, the happiness of a given life is not to be measured according to the joys and pleasures it contains but according to the absence of the positive element, the absence of suffering.’

2. Present moment meaning. Is the work enjoyable? Creatively satisfying?Intellectually stimulating? Fun? Rewarding?

3. The grand meaning. Feeding the hungry, solving climate change, highlighting injustice and inequality. Something that is more than just satisfying someone’s need for bread - your work plays a part in something big and important.

For some people, there is no need for the third definition of meaning. If they feel like they are a positive aspect in their community, this direct meaning satisfies them daily and it is enjoyable then there is no need for a grander meaning. I see Bourgeois as being in this camp: trainspotting isn’t going to solve world hunger, but it is bringing joy to many people. It is entertainment. It may be trivial and simple, but it is undoubtedly having a positive impact on the world.

Self-Enquiry

I am currently a freelance video editor. I edit TikToks for OCD awareness and YouTube shorts on the video game Stardew Valley.

My OCD work is to promote an AI OCD therapy app, ‘Choiceful OCD Therapy’. Here’s how it relates to the three elements of meaning I have just described:

1. Reducing the suffering of others: I am reducing the suffering of OCD sufferers by bringing their attention to an OCD therapy app. I can see from the comments on the TikToks that people have benefitted from the app - in fact, 50% of the users come from TikTok.

2. Present moment meaning: Sometimes it feels creative but other times it is like I am working on autopilot. This is inevitably the case when the TikToks have a set format and presentation, so once this is mastered and I have got the TikToks to a high standard it is simply a case of sticking to what is working.

3. The grand meaning: OCD is one of the most misunderstood mental health illnesses. Being a part of the campaign for OCD awareness feels very meaningful.

My Stardew Valley work is a little different:

1. Reducing the suffering of others: My work provides a fun, nerdy distraction for Stardew Valley fans, as well as bringing to life my client’s passion project.

2. Present moment meaning: The work is constantly creatively satisfying as each short has its own set of challenges. I am also trying to do each short in 3 hours or less so that is a fun challenge. It is very rewarding once I see the end product.

3. The grand meaning: None: it is simple entertainment.

But then you may ask, is ‘grand meaning’ subjective? For Bourgeois, his grand meaning may be as simple as making people happy. For me, it is inspiring others to reflect on their lives, to inspire contemplation and introspection which, I must admit, isn’t fulfilled by my two editing jobs. However, this gap is filled with this weekly Substack. Meaning doesn’t have to be contained exclusively in our jobs - it can trickle down into our hobbies and interests. However, the ultimate goal is to get our jobs to fulfil all three elements of meaning (reducing the suffering of others, present moment meaning and grand meaning).

If our working life achieves this, we will live thoroughly meaningful lives.

Ordinary Joy | Conclusion

Bourgeois finds joy in trains, he appreciates them outside of their purpose of getting us from A to B. Finding joy in the every day will ensure we never lose the wonder of life. The YouTuber Unjaded Jade uses the term ‘casual magic’ to describe this ordinary joy:

‘Casual magic is about how we can find beauty in the mundane parts of every day. We all look forward to the 1% of days in our lives that are extraordinary: the wedding, the birthday, the job promotion. But 99% of our days are just ordinary and wouldn't it be sad if we only allowed ourselves to feel joy 1% of the time’

‘Casual magic’ is finding joy in the every day, but how can we find this joy? One can’t just will it into existence. To find joy, one must be present and see things fresh. The ancient Stoics’ last-time meditation is where one imagines that whatever they are experiencing might be the last time they are experiencing it - the last time I see a seagull, wear headphones, look out a window etc. Everything, all the ordinary parts of our experience, can be wonderous if we change our perspective in this way.

Every time I watch Bourgeois, I get excited about the ordinary things. And this is one of the biggest things we can learn from Bourgeois: there is a lot around us that can fill us with joy, we just have to look.

References

Francis Bourgeois: https://www.youtube.com/@francis.bourgeois

Unjaded Jade: https://www.youtube.com/@UnJadedJade/videos
Interview With Francis Bourgeois: https://www.thegentlemansjournal.com/article/francis-bourgeois-tiktok-trains-interview-profile-trainspotter/