Geniuses are a dime a dozen. The streets of Manhattan are crawling with MFAs from Columbia and NYU, as are the freeways of LA with grads of the USC School of Cinematic Arts.
I’ll trade them all for someone who knows how to work.
The original cover of “Do the Work,” published by Seth Godin’s Domino Project
Steve shows you the predictable Resistance points that every writer hits in a work-in-progress and then shows you how to deal with each one of these sticking points. This book shows you how to keep going with your work.
A short book about the writing of a first novel: for Steve, The Legend of Bagger Vance. Having failed with three earlier attempts at novels, here's how Steve finally succeeded.
Steve shares his "lessons learned" from the trenches of the five different writing careers—advertising, screenwriting, fiction, nonfiction, and self-help. This is tradecraft. An MFA in Writing in 197 pages.
Amateurs have amateur habits. Pros have pro habits. When we turn pro, we give up the comfortable life but we find our power. Steve answers the question, "How do we overcome Resistance?"
Thank you for the So Important thought dear Steve. It is a core.
I am starting a master degree in October probably. It seems controversial for a writer but I do it for distraction. I found the easiest one -academicaly important though. Will keep me working in the eyes of others, but in secret I will be writing.
Good luck, Tolis! I went to grad school myself, got a master’s in anthropology–because what can you do with a BA in anthro except to grad school? Learned a lot and after teaching for several years, the main thing I learned was that I didn’t want to do that so went back to my art. Hope you get something out of your studies beyond keeping the Wolves of Judgment at bay. And don’t stop writing no matter how tired you get. I did for a while and nearly lost my mind.
Lin I’m so happy about you! Leaving the main Road to get to your secret path is a great price to pay. And where there are great prices, there are great revelations -no? Thank you for wishing me luck. Damn, my luck is based on my will every day of every year.
I’ve got an acquaintance who has an MFA from Iowa. He now works for an auto parts distributor, writing technical manuals and parts catalogs. So there’s surely something else required.
And here’s a VERY funny Twitter account: @GuyInYourMFA
This parody account, set up by writer Dana Schwartz around 2014, is in the voice of a pretentious MFA student. It looks like she stopped updating this account around 2019, but you can find some gems:
“Twitter is a scourge upon writing. Except when I’m using it. My tweets are actually creative non-fiction micro-essays.”
“Considering getting my doctorate in 18th century literature from Oxford. I don’t know. Maybe I’ll just wait until I’m the author of an acclaimed novel and they invite me to guest-lecture.”
“I’m sure every girl at this bar wants to hear my incredibly detailed thoughts about Jonathan Franzen.”
I know a woman whose parents paid for her education in full. The educated woman did nothing with her advantages. She doesn’t hold a job. The educated woman is unhappy and shakes her fist at the world.
Another woman struggled to educate herself while holding a job. The self-educated woman took nothing for granted. Though she held no degree, her education was hard won by hard work. Hard work wasn’t to be wasted. She toils on to give something back to the world. The self-taught woman, after a shower to wash away the toil, dances and laughs.
“The self-taught woman, after a shower to wash away the toil, dances and laughs.”–love that line! I’m pinning it up on my wall to remember to dance and laugh.
This is a truism, for sure. One note: talent and genius aren’t the same thing. Talent can be developed more so than genius. As a good example, Theodore John Kaczynski was a freak genius but fortunately untalented as a bomb maker (he failed to take down an airliner whereas many other less intelligent buy harder working terrorists succeeded).
The most important thing is finding out what you can do (or learn to do) better than everyone else, finding a plan to be able to work at it for your whole life, and hopefully supporting yourself in doing it. This is the hard part for most of us. Finding that thing is 50% of success. The other 50% is figuring out how to put together the plan.
All present value the hard workers. The underdogs. Hell, outworking the other guy is mostly what I got in the arsenal.
And “geniuses are a dime a dozen.” But we all know what’s rare as hell: a master, a brilliant person, who also possesses (and retains) a relentless work ethic– and is willing to share her secrets/give back…
Those are the ones who the serious apprentices latch on to…
Joe Jansen and I recently chatted on this very topic over a burger a few weeks back… I don’t care if this comes off as blatant-ass bootlicking.. My final words to Joe on topic– “Well, I suppose Steve Pressfield may feel a little uncomfortable being called a ‘guru’, a ‘master’. Ah well, if the shoe fits.”
Brad,
Very well put. My younger brother—and Joe’s brother as well, fit the cast you describe. Alan, my brother, got a 790 math SAT score, but works harder than he is smart.
One example: in Modesto, CA every school has a park attached—same block or property. The parks all had teens/young adult ‘parks and rec’ types who organized games, sports, and arts/crafts for the latchkeys who went to the park after practice/school.
Our P&R guy was named Squaker. Don’t know the story behind that nickname, but as kids we thought it was cool—and Squaker was the absolute coolest dude in the world. He also worked as a playground guide during recess.
Squaker was totally into arm-wrestling, so of course all the kids got into it as well. There was a big tournament we were all entering.
Back to Alan. He’s a southpaw, an obvious genetic defect, but arm wrestling is for the normies—right handed folk.
I remember coming into our bedroom one day (we shared a room most of our young lives) and Alan was doing arm curls with a dumbbell. Alan was in the 3rd grade when he was doing this! I, from a previous post, shared that I preferred to rely on talent most of my life. I was in the 6th grade at the time and thought my little bro had lost his mind.
Not surprisingly, Alan won his weight class. He is not only my best friend, but the person I admire the most in my life. (Caveat my lovely Bride of 30 years next month—but that’s a different kind of love).
bsn
Perfect example of hard work paying off, Brian! Which is what all of us left-handers learn at some point: we’re going to have to work harder in the RH world! Good that your brother learned it so early!
I had a wonderful teacher in 2nd grade who spent time with me after school for I don’t know how long helping me learn how to write correctly. You know why so many left-handers write with their hand curled around? Because that’s what all the illustrations in penmanship show–the right hand. We were just trying to make our hand go that way. I have a lovely antique hand-forged left-handed bread knife my mom gave me with the serrations on the ‘correct’ side. Paul McCartney turned his guitar around so he could play it. I got tendinitis in high school practicing a very difficult piano passage over and over. Figured out thinking back only this morning (63–slow learner!) that if I’d been right-handed, it might not have been so hard. Medicine bottles, Caps of any kind. You name it, left=handers have to adapt to it. Makes us great at persistence.
Good for you Lin for going the extra mile. I had a friend who wanted to learn caligraphy. She could find no one to teach her. So she taught herself. My daughter is a lefty. She is persistent.
Agreed Brad, if the the shoe fits… Steve brings us together, shares what he knows, and holds us accountable to ourselves and each other. Master, guru, all around great guy. Thanks to all. Have a productive week.
Jackie/Brad,
The impact of a legitimate mentor/guru–who is also authentically open and humble is exceedingly rare…and I think that is why we all gravitate towards SP. I imagine he laughs harder at himself than anyone in a room when sharing war stories–I think that is one measurement of growth/character that is visible when trying to identify the ineffable.
bsn
Great story, Brian. Thanks for the share… Pretty awesome to have that strong of a relationship with your brother (the “almost-twin bro,” I recall, despite the 3-year age difference).
And VERY wise/nimble recovery at the end.. 🙂
This seems very similar in theme to last week’s blog about talent. Coolidge’s quote about persistence leaps to mind as well.
“Nothing In The World Can Take The Place Of Persistence. Talent Will Not; Nothing Is More Common Than Unsuccessful Men With Talent. Genius Will Not; Unrewarded Genius Is Almost A Proverb. Education Will Not; The World Is Full Of Educated Derelicts. Persistence And Determination Alone Are Omnipotent. The Slogan “Press On” Has Solved And Always Will Solve The Problems Of The Human Race.” – Calvin Coolidge
To echo Jackie above, when I interviewed people in the past, I have always been more interested in how they got their education much more than where or what they studied. It seems to me that is where the true lessons are learned.
Obviously a projection from my own biography, but I have not encountered many people with illustrious pedigrees who were capable men or women when truly pressed upon. Most have folded like a house of cards. Could be the ‘easy living’ doesn’t prepare people for true difficulties.
When we deployed, I was the Operations Officer and our XO (chief of staff–kinda my boss–but not rated by him–we were both direct subordinates of the Commander) was an Academy graduate, Ranger and Special Forces tabbed MBA from UW. He was a big shot banker in Seattle. Smart guy–by all outward shiny accouterments.
He was even the temporary commander when our initial commander was relieved just as we got on the plane. (Interesting note on the timing of the Army. We deployed the very day the Seattle Seahawks made it to the Super Bowl for the first time in 40 years. There is an EAD/LAD(earliest arrival date/latest arrival date) for any units entering the theater. We flew on the EAD–Super Bowl Sunday. We tried EVERYTHING to move it one day right, to no avail. We landed in Turkey around halftime. Those bastards would not let us off the plane to watch the game for 90 minutes while we waited on the tarmac for necessary fueling and crew changes. At the time I wished Ebola on Turkey…
I like this guy. Like and respect are sometimes not closely correlated. He made O6 before retiring–and yet–when the job REALLY mattered, he was a tool. An algorithm could have done his job. He had absolutely no idea what our capabilities as an organization were, never understood the difference between counter-intelligence and Human Intelligence collection (two different career fields, with completely different missions), nor how we supported the Division. He read Fortune magazine most days. The XO is the beans & bullets guy–so it wasn’t critical that he was hyper competent-but it did mean that I felt the burden of handing his planning as well.
I was so nervous–that’s bullshit–I was terrified–that I would make a costly mistake as the S3. I had never worked at battalion level prior. I was over my head. The S3 is a significant job. We wrote all the orders, did all the planning for every one of our 25+ teams spread all over the country.
Long story short, my education I pulled from a Cracker Jacks box, never came into question.
I learned then that pedigree is total bullshit. It is the work. It is the application of knowledge pressed upon the environment we currently occupy. I learned that lesson in combat, but it has taken a number of years to finally shed the insecurity of an education gained by 1-2 classes at night from schools available on Army posts.
Now that I’m in my 50s–I think an MFA would be an interesting endeavor–but for the enrichment it would provide me in re-reading classic literature, or learning about the Humanities academically. Maybe I’d learn how to articulate the deep feelings aroused in me by some art–and a greater appreciation for the art I do not understand.
Dan Pink wrote that MFAs are more important than MBAs to CEOs these days. I think both are likely useless–but I understand his point.
I actually pity those men and women who come from means, who have been protected too much by their parents. This might be an indictment of a significant majority of the Boomer generation. They never had to grow up. Maybe that is why they grip to power so desperately today. They cannot sit quietly in a room alone because deep down–they know they are frauds.
bsn
I don’t have an MFA, but I do have a Bachelors in Writing and Poetics. The greatest gift of that degree is that I learned, if I’m going to write, I have to ritualize it — meaning that the computer goes on at the same time every morning, a cup of strong tea by my side, and I work for two to three hours a day. Sometimes, when I have a deadline, I push to work more, but my daily work is two to three hours.
I think of myself as a small potatoes writer. I have some readers, but not enough to put me on anyone’s public list. Mostly I write because I have to; because it helps me to make sense of life; because I like to make shit up and take some true delight and creating stories.
This is the first time I’ve commented on one of your emails. I was always afraid that I possibly wasn’t smart enough to contribute anything of value here, but after reading Put Your Ass, I believe that the best thing that I can contribute is, the understanding that the work affects me on a lot of different levels: yes, it grows me as a better writer, but it also grows me as a better human being, which is why I think I keep doing it.
Sending good wishes, goodwill, and good writing to all of you . . .
You are safe here Stephanie. I, too, felt like I brought no value. I hold no degree in anything, but taught myself to paint and am learning to write.(Though I’ve been writing for years, I have much to learn). I do not make my living from writing. I am such small potatoes, I’d have a hard time filling a five pound bag. But like you, I love the work and feel less if I don’t put my ass in a chair to do it. Isn’t making shit up the best?! The result is thirty-five published stories more or about a month’s worth of groceries more than if I had quit. Keep on sister. Appreciate the goodwill and good wishes and wish you the same.
I’d also like to add, but it often goes along with good work ethic, is a great attitude! Elon Musk said something similar to Mr. Pressfield. To paraphrase, he said something along the lines that he doesn’t care about the education if the personality isn’t there. Attitude and work ethic is everything.
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Man, that’s good to hear. I often regret not having started to do THE work earlier. I’ve been working since my teenage years, but the thing I haven’t done is consistently work on what I truly care about. I wish I could go back in time and just focus on that. It stings a bit to look at lost opportunities and all that “wasted” time—even though I know it isn’t exactly wasted. Maybe I had to make all those experiences. Yet, I wish I’d be a bit further down this path already.
I read your article very carefully. I think you should also write an article about it Geocell Suppliers. This will be beneficial for others I guess thank you.
Yes! And it’s not just work. It’s focused work. You can work hard but you are flailing around from this to that you will never achieve the fruits of your hard work. That hard work needs to be laser focused until you achieve your goal. Once you achieve your goal THEN you can move to the next task you want to achieve.
I agree that having a strong work ethic is more valuable than just being academically talented. While there may be an abundance of highly educated individuals, true success comes from being able to apply that knowledge and consistently put in the effort to achieve goals. Similarly, in the field of essay writing, having a degree or a natural talent for writing is only a small part of the equation. I know this very well because I work here as a writer for a long time. Writer who knows how to work and consistently puts in the effort to improve their craft, research their topic, and meet deadlines will be more successful in the long run than one who simply relies on their education or natural talent. A strong work ethic is essential for success in any field, and that includes writing.
The replies on this forum caught me off guard. I’m happy to have connected with people who share the same passion as me. Let’s play retro bowl unblocked together so we can discover new passions. We will see you at the game.
I appreciate the inclusion of diverse perspectives, as it enriches the article Watermelon Game and demonstrates a commitment to presenting a well-rounded view of the topic.
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Thank you for the So Important thought dear Steve. It is a core.
I am starting a master degree in October probably. It seems controversial for a writer but I do it for distraction. I found the easiest one -academicaly important though. Will keep me working in the eyes of others, but in secret I will be writing.
Who says MD aren’t goof for us? 😉
I wish great work to all our friends
*good, not goof 😀
You have good eyes. Ha ha
Thank you Kelly 😉
Good luck, Tolis! I went to grad school myself, got a master’s in anthropology–because what can you do with a BA in anthro except to grad school? Learned a lot and after teaching for several years, the main thing I learned was that I didn’t want to do that so went back to my art. Hope you get something out of your studies beyond keeping the Wolves of Judgment at bay. And don’t stop writing no matter how tired you get. I did for a while and nearly lost my mind.
Lin I’m so happy about you! Leaving the main Road to get to your secret path is a great price to pay. And where there are great prices, there are great revelations -no? Thank you for wishing me luck. Damn, my luck is based on my will every day of every year.
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I’ve got an acquaintance who has an MFA from Iowa. He now works for an auto parts distributor, writing technical manuals and parts catalogs. So there’s surely something else required.
And here’s a VERY funny Twitter account: @GuyInYourMFA
This parody account, set up by writer Dana Schwartz around 2014, is in the voice of a pretentious MFA student. It looks like she stopped updating this account around 2019, but you can find some gems:
“Twitter is a scourge upon writing. Except when I’m using it. My tweets are actually creative non-fiction micro-essays.”
“Considering getting my doctorate in 18th century literature from Oxford. I don’t know. Maybe I’ll just wait until I’m the author of an acclaimed novel and they invite me to guest-lecture.”
“I’m sure every girl at this bar wants to hear my incredibly detailed thoughts about Jonathan Franzen.”
I know a woman whose parents paid for her education in full. The educated woman did nothing with her advantages. She doesn’t hold a job. The educated woman is unhappy and shakes her fist at the world.
Another woman struggled to educate herself while holding a job. The self-educated woman took nothing for granted. Though she held no degree, her education was hard won by hard work. Hard work wasn’t to be wasted. She toils on to give something back to the world. The self-taught woman, after a shower to wash away the toil, dances and laughs.
Poetic!
Beautiful!
“The self-taught woman, after a shower to wash away the toil, dances and laughs.”–love that line! I’m pinning it up on my wall to remember to dance and laugh.
Thanks Lin
It’s a so strange world, Jackie! Our infinite creative force being based on our capacity to put that ass on the chair. I mean, it’s so unsuspected.
True story.
This is a truism, for sure. One note: talent and genius aren’t the same thing. Talent can be developed more so than genius. As a good example, Theodore John Kaczynski was a freak genius but fortunately untalented as a bomb maker (he failed to take down an airliner whereas many other less intelligent buy harder working terrorists succeeded).
That’s just what the dean said when I went to art school > more or less ^_^
The most important thing is finding out what you can do (or learn to do) better than everyone else, finding a plan to be able to work at it for your whole life, and hopefully supporting yourself in doing it. This is the hard part for most of us. Finding that thing is 50% of success. The other 50% is figuring out how to put together the plan.
All present value the hard workers. The underdogs. Hell, outworking the other guy is mostly what I got in the arsenal.
And “geniuses are a dime a dozen.” But we all know what’s rare as hell: a master, a brilliant person, who also possesses (and retains) a relentless work ethic– and is willing to share her secrets/give back…
Those are the ones who the serious apprentices latch on to…
Joe Jansen and I recently chatted on this very topic over a burger a few weeks back… I don’t care if this comes off as blatant-ass bootlicking.. My final words to Joe on topic– “Well, I suppose Steve Pressfield may feel a little uncomfortable being called a ‘guru’, a ‘master’. Ah well, if the shoe fits.”
Brad,
Very well put. My younger brother—and Joe’s brother as well, fit the cast you describe. Alan, my brother, got a 790 math SAT score, but works harder than he is smart.
One example: in Modesto, CA every school has a park attached—same block or property. The parks all had teens/young adult ‘parks and rec’ types who organized games, sports, and arts/crafts for the latchkeys who went to the park after practice/school.
Our P&R guy was named Squaker. Don’t know the story behind that nickname, but as kids we thought it was cool—and Squaker was the absolute coolest dude in the world. He also worked as a playground guide during recess.
Squaker was totally into arm-wrestling, so of course all the kids got into it as well. There was a big tournament we were all entering.
Back to Alan. He’s a southpaw, an obvious genetic defect, but arm wrestling is for the normies—right handed folk.
I remember coming into our bedroom one day (we shared a room most of our young lives) and Alan was doing arm curls with a dumbbell. Alan was in the 3rd grade when he was doing this! I, from a previous post, shared that I preferred to rely on talent most of my life. I was in the 6th grade at the time and thought my little bro had lost his mind.
Not surprisingly, Alan won his weight class. He is not only my best friend, but the person I admire the most in my life. (Caveat my lovely Bride of 30 years next month—but that’s a different kind of love).
bsn
Perfect example of hard work paying off, Brian! Which is what all of us left-handers learn at some point: we’re going to have to work harder in the RH world! Good that your brother learned it so early!
I had a wonderful teacher in 2nd grade who spent time with me after school for I don’t know how long helping me learn how to write correctly. You know why so many left-handers write with their hand curled around? Because that’s what all the illustrations in penmanship show–the right hand. We were just trying to make our hand go that way. I have a lovely antique hand-forged left-handed bread knife my mom gave me with the serrations on the ‘correct’ side. Paul McCartney turned his guitar around so he could play it. I got tendinitis in high school practicing a very difficult piano passage over and over. Figured out thinking back only this morning (63–slow learner!) that if I’d been right-handed, it might not have been so hard. Medicine bottles, Caps of any kind. You name it, left=handers have to adapt to it. Makes us great at persistence.
Good for you Lin for going the extra mile. I had a friend who wanted to learn caligraphy. She could find no one to teach her. So she taught herself. My daughter is a lefty. She is persistent.
The friend was lefty.
Agreed Brad, if the the shoe fits… Steve brings us together, shares what he knows, and holds us accountable to ourselves and each other. Master, guru, all around great guy. Thanks to all. Have a productive week.
Jackie/Brad,
The impact of a legitimate mentor/guru–who is also authentically open and humble is exceedingly rare…and I think that is why we all gravitate towards SP. I imagine he laughs harder at himself than anyone in a room when sharing war stories–I think that is one measurement of growth/character that is visible when trying to identify the ineffable.
bsn
Great story, Brian. Thanks for the share… Pretty awesome to have that strong of a relationship with your brother (the “almost-twin bro,” I recall, despite the 3-year age difference).
And VERY wise/nimble recovery at the end.. 🙂
NO DOUBT. Try explaining that one on our 30th…
bsn
“God gives talent. Work transforms talent into genius.” Anna Pavlova
This seems very similar in theme to last week’s blog about talent. Coolidge’s quote about persistence leaps to mind as well.
“Nothing In The World Can Take The Place Of Persistence. Talent Will Not; Nothing Is More Common Than Unsuccessful Men With Talent. Genius Will Not; Unrewarded Genius Is Almost A Proverb. Education Will Not; The World Is Full Of Educated Derelicts. Persistence And Determination Alone Are Omnipotent. The Slogan “Press On” Has Solved And Always Will Solve The Problems Of The Human Race.” – Calvin Coolidge
To echo Jackie above, when I interviewed people in the past, I have always been more interested in how they got their education much more than where or what they studied. It seems to me that is where the true lessons are learned.
Obviously a projection from my own biography, but I have not encountered many people with illustrious pedigrees who were capable men or women when truly pressed upon. Most have folded like a house of cards. Could be the ‘easy living’ doesn’t prepare people for true difficulties.
When we deployed, I was the Operations Officer and our XO (chief of staff–kinda my boss–but not rated by him–we were both direct subordinates of the Commander) was an Academy graduate, Ranger and Special Forces tabbed MBA from UW. He was a big shot banker in Seattle. Smart guy–by all outward shiny accouterments.
He was even the temporary commander when our initial commander was relieved just as we got on the plane. (Interesting note on the timing of the Army. We deployed the very day the Seattle Seahawks made it to the Super Bowl for the first time in 40 years. There is an EAD/LAD(earliest arrival date/latest arrival date) for any units entering the theater. We flew on the EAD–Super Bowl Sunday. We tried EVERYTHING to move it one day right, to no avail. We landed in Turkey around halftime. Those bastards would not let us off the plane to watch the game for 90 minutes while we waited on the tarmac for necessary fueling and crew changes. At the time I wished Ebola on Turkey…
I like this guy. Like and respect are sometimes not closely correlated. He made O6 before retiring–and yet–when the job REALLY mattered, he was a tool. An algorithm could have done his job. He had absolutely no idea what our capabilities as an organization were, never understood the difference between counter-intelligence and Human Intelligence collection (two different career fields, with completely different missions), nor how we supported the Division. He read Fortune magazine most days. The XO is the beans & bullets guy–so it wasn’t critical that he was hyper competent-but it did mean that I felt the burden of handing his planning as well.
I was so nervous–that’s bullshit–I was terrified–that I would make a costly mistake as the S3. I had never worked at battalion level prior. I was over my head. The S3 is a significant job. We wrote all the orders, did all the planning for every one of our 25+ teams spread all over the country.
Long story short, my education I pulled from a Cracker Jacks box, never came into question.
I learned then that pedigree is total bullshit. It is the work. It is the application of knowledge pressed upon the environment we currently occupy. I learned that lesson in combat, but it has taken a number of years to finally shed the insecurity of an education gained by 1-2 classes at night from schools available on Army posts.
Now that I’m in my 50s–I think an MFA would be an interesting endeavor–but for the enrichment it would provide me in re-reading classic literature, or learning about the Humanities academically. Maybe I’d learn how to articulate the deep feelings aroused in me by some art–and a greater appreciation for the art I do not understand.
Dan Pink wrote that MFAs are more important than MBAs to CEOs these days. I think both are likely useless–but I understand his point.
I actually pity those men and women who come from means, who have been protected too much by their parents. This might be an indictment of a significant majority of the Boomer generation. They never had to grow up. Maybe that is why they grip to power so desperately today. They cannot sit quietly in a room alone because deep down–they know they are frauds.
bsn
I don’t have an MFA, but I do have a Bachelors in Writing and Poetics. The greatest gift of that degree is that I learned, if I’m going to write, I have to ritualize it — meaning that the computer goes on at the same time every morning, a cup of strong tea by my side, and I work for two to three hours a day. Sometimes, when I have a deadline, I push to work more, but my daily work is two to three hours.
I think of myself as a small potatoes writer. I have some readers, but not enough to put me on anyone’s public list. Mostly I write because I have to; because it helps me to make sense of life; because I like to make shit up and take some true delight and creating stories.
This is the first time I’ve commented on one of your emails. I was always afraid that I possibly wasn’t smart enough to contribute anything of value here, but after reading Put Your Ass, I believe that the best thing that I can contribute is, the understanding that the work affects me on a lot of different levels: yes, it grows me as a better writer, but it also grows me as a better human being, which is why I think I keep doing it.
Sending good wishes, goodwill, and good writing to all of you . . .
You are safe here Stephanie. I, too, felt like I brought no value. I hold no degree in anything, but taught myself to paint and am learning to write.(Though I’ve been writing for years, I have much to learn). I do not make my living from writing. I am such small potatoes, I’d have a hard time filling a five pound bag. But like you, I love the work and feel less if I don’t put my ass in a chair to do it. Isn’t making shit up the best?! The result is thirty-five published stories more or about a month’s worth of groceries more than if I had quit. Keep on sister. Appreciate the goodwill and good wishes and wish you the same.
Welcome, Stephanie!
I’d also like to add, but it often goes along with good work ethic, is a great attitude! Elon Musk said something similar to Mr. Pressfield. To paraphrase, he said something along the lines that he doesn’t care about the education if the personality isn’t there. Attitude and work ethic is everything.
Welcome aboard, Stephanie. Good wishes and good writing to you, too.
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Man, that’s good to hear. I often regret not having started to do THE work earlier. I’ve been working since my teenage years, but the thing I haven’t done is consistently work on what I truly care about. I wish I could go back in time and just focus on that. It stings a bit to look at lost opportunities and all that “wasted” time—even though I know it isn’t exactly wasted. Maybe I had to make all those experiences. Yet, I wish I’d be a bit further down this path already.
I appreciate your sharing this thought, Steve. It’s the core.
I read your article very carefully. I think you should also write an article about it Geocell Suppliers. This will be beneficial for others I guess thank you.
Yes! And it’s not just work. It’s focused work. You can work hard but you are flailing around from this to that you will never achieve the fruits of your hard work. That hard work needs to be laser focused until you achieve your goal. Once you achieve your goal THEN you can move to the next task you want to achieve.
I agree that having a strong work ethic is more valuable than just being academically talented. While there may be an abundance of highly educated individuals, true success comes from being able to apply that knowledge and consistently put in the effort to achieve goals. Similarly, in the field of essay writing, having a degree or a natural talent for writing is only a small part of the equation. I know this very well because I work here as a writer for a long time. Writer who knows how to work and consistently puts in the effort to improve their craft, research their topic, and meet deadlines will be more successful in the long run than one who simply relies on their education or natural talent. A strong work ethic is essential for success in any field, and that includes writing.
The replies on this forum caught me off guard. I’m happy to have connected with people who share the same passion as me. Let’s play retro bowl unblocked together so we can discover new passions. We will see you at the game.
I appreciate the inclusion of diverse perspectives, as it enriches the article Watermelon Game and demonstrates a commitment to presenting a well-rounded view of the topic.