You have more in common with the young Steve Jobs and the early Bill Gates than you do with your dad who worked all his life for AT&T or your aunt who’s five months away from collecting her pension from the Post Office.
Steve Jobs. This is you and me, whether we realize it or not.
Are you a returning vet? A recent or soon-to-be retiree? Did your company just lay you off?
You’re an entrepreneur too. And you’d better start making the Jedi mind-shift from Working for Somebody Else to Working for Yourself.
These are two completely different ways of looking at the world and of thinking about yourself.
One way looks to others for daily structure, for validation, for monetary support. The other way looks for these primarily from herself.
This is a HUGE difference, an earth-shaking, life-changing, monumental watershed of the mind and the heart.
[This post is the second in a series I’m going to call TK THS JOB N SHOVE IT. We’ll be doing a lot more in the coming weeks … and also a video series on Instagram.
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?"
My old teacher Brian said, “Even when you work as an employee, you must be Unemployable. Don’t tell that to your boss though, ’cause bosses are sensitive on that matter (and he laughed ironically).”
It seems like a whole world to add in your inventory, to be an entrepreneur. And in a life when you barely can crawl for a bit of the basics, it sounds terrifying. You will say that this fear is part of Resistance, as well noted in your last post.
Also my other old teacher, Jim, said “And what you can’t do yourself, get it covered”. It seems quite a good thought. But I would very much like in the future to hear from you your experiences from the Gates of Fire or the other most succesful books you had, if they were given to others (publishing houses etc,) to take care of. You have seen and experienced the whole scope, so your story must be valuable. Because quite obviously you learned that you should trust your entrepreneurship skills more than trust unknown publicing houses.
A great friend of mine, a lady at her 60, who has strongly the values of integrity and ehtics and philosophy, tried to give 3 books to public houses. She was devastated, even from the last public house where she was treated very gently during the procedure of publshing the book, but not after. And she is a deep human, she’s not a surfacer. She tells me to not trust the Greek Public Houses, but go at once outside Greece for publishing, she believes in the dynamic of my work in progress (damn that work, this is the 6th year it annoys me to finish it).
On the other hand a book that I read a bit, about 4 years ago, concerning Public Houses in America I think, was devastating. It said you just can’t go there alone, but only with an agent (we don’t have agents in Greece like you do there), because there are many ways to be taken advantage of and fail, and you will fail, perhaps severely. The writer was certain on that. What it also that book where it said that we can’t expect from editors to really refine our work at all? Yes, I keep that in mind every day, that’s one of the reason the book takes so much time. Every line, every verse, they are really ugly always.
P.S. I just love morning pages and the things revealed to me by The Artist Way lady. Thank you so much.
Like Brian also said, we must be Unstoppable.
So, to entrepreneurhip then, even with fear and doubt and a sense that we can’t even organize the basics (I really can’t, but I try that 1 hour every day and gosh, what a dynamic is there in the book!)
P.S.2 Another great obstacle all these years in front of me, maybe the greatest, was this: Tiredness. It’s one of the worst enemies I’ve faced. To wake up, start working, but feeling that the energy will soon fall. And many times it does, like yesterday -my hour of creating didn’t even happen. Did you face that damned demon? I don’t know if diabetes plays a role, but I still haven’t mastered it. I mean, if I had full energy, I would have conquered the world by now. Well, at least that’s what I feel. And imagine that I try with all the herbs, with that exercise etc. – but I can’t control some things like late night eating, nor can I get very good sleep. Totally Unstoppable in the day – what a place to have, even at the most devastating circumstances.
Learning this is probably what separates the “successful and recognized” artist from the otherwise as good as artist the former but “not successful as an artist”. It is a deep truth and internal paradigm shift many including myself fail to make. Thanks for covering it Steve!
Not everyone fits that pattern. Some of us are not readers, but are more writers, not because we don’t value reading; some are handicapped, and cannot spend long hours doing what others enjoy. Some of us are glued to a computer where the click of the keys is the only sound we hear even in the dregs of night, when the moon peers through the window, curious about writers who do not sleep. Who do not toss and turn in their beds, because the words offer the only twist needed at the end of a poem, script, novel or short story. We are the writers. We belong to the words and the words know it…
I’ve been self-employed for 30 years. There’s nothing like flying your own plane rather than being a passenger in someone else’s. It’s a hugely spiritual experience as well. It’s hard to get to know what that’s really about when you’re worshiping someone else’s ego, rather than following your own heart.
Thank you for speaking the truth. I needed that. I bounce between the two mindsets. I AM an entrepreneur, been in business for myself as a massage therapist for 25 years. Still, the old way of thinking that was drummed into us in elementary school dies hard. Yet the freedom of letting go of all that is delicious! Thanks again for the reminder.
Patronu aradığında sürekli hasta olduğunu söyleyerek iş yerine yalan söylüyor
porno hikaye Patronu artık bu kadarının gerçek olamayacağını ve rapor görmek istediğini dile getirip telefonu kapatıyor
türbanlı Olgun kadın hemen bilgisayarının başına geçip özel bir doktor buluyor ve onu arayarak evine davet ediyor
porno Muayene için eve gelen doktor olgun kadını muayene ediyor ve hiç bir sıkıntı olmadığını söylüyor
brazzers porno Sarışın ablamız ise iş yerine rapor götürmesi gerektiğini bu yüzden rapor yazmasını istiyor
brazzers porno fakat doktor bunun pek mümkün olmadığını dile getiriyor
sex hikayeleri Daha sonra evli olan bu kahpe doktora iş atarak ona yavşıyor ve istediğini alana kadar durmuyor
Porno İzle Karılarını takas etmek isteyen elemanlar hep birlikte evde buluşuyor
türkçe porno Güzel vakit geçirdikten sonra kızlara isteklerini iletiyorlar ve hatunlarda kocalarının bu isteklerini kabul ediyorlar
seks hikayeleri Hemen ellerine telefonları alan elemanlar karılarına video eşliğinde sakso çektiriyorlar
porno izle Hiç beklemeden sikişe geçen elemanlar hatunları değiştire değiştire sikmeye başlıyorlar.
Patronu aradığında sürekli hasta olduğunu söyleyerek iş yerine yalan söylüyor
porno hikaye Patronu artık bu kadarının gerçek olamayacağını ve rapor görmek istediğini dile getirip telefonu kapatıyor
türbanlı Olgun kadın hemen bilgisayarının başına geçip özel bir doktor buluyor ve onu arayarak evine davet ediyor
porno Muayene için eve gelen doktor olgun kadını muayene ediyor ve hiç bir sıkıntı olmadığını söylüyor
brazzers porno Sarışın ablamız ise iş yerine rapor götürmesi gerektiğini bu yüzden rapor yazmasını istiyor
brazzers porno fakat doktor bunun pek mümkün olmadığını dile getiriyor
sex hikayeleri Daha sonra evli olan bu kahpe doktora iş atarak ona yavşıyor ve istediğini alana kadar durmuyor
Porno İzle Karılarını takas etmek isteyen elemanlar hep birlikte evde buluşuyor
türkçe porno Güzel vakit geçirdikten sonra kızlara isteklerini iletiyorlar ve hatunlarda kocalarının bu isteklerini kabul ediyorlar
seks hikayeleri Hemen ellerine telefonları alan elemanlar karılarına video eşliğinde sakso çektiriyorlar
porno izle Hiç beklemeden sikişe geçen elemanlar hatunları değiştire değiştire sikmeye başlıyorlar.
Thank you so much dear Steve.
My old teacher Brian said, “Even when you work as an employee, you must be Unemployable. Don’t tell that to your boss though, ’cause bosses are sensitive on that matter (and he laughed ironically).”
It seems like a whole world to add in your inventory, to be an entrepreneur. And in a life when you barely can crawl for a bit of the basics, it sounds terrifying. You will say that this fear is part of Resistance, as well noted in your last post.
Also my other old teacher, Jim, said “And what you can’t do yourself, get it covered”. It seems quite a good thought. But I would very much like in the future to hear from you your experiences from the Gates of Fire or the other most succesful books you had, if they were given to others (publishing houses etc,) to take care of. You have seen and experienced the whole scope, so your story must be valuable. Because quite obviously you learned that you should trust your entrepreneurship skills more than trust unknown publicing houses.
A great friend of mine, a lady at her 60, who has strongly the values of integrity and ehtics and philosophy, tried to give 3 books to public houses. She was devastated, even from the last public house where she was treated very gently during the procedure of publshing the book, but not after. And she is a deep human, she’s not a surfacer. She tells me to not trust the Greek Public Houses, but go at once outside Greece for publishing, she believes in the dynamic of my work in progress (damn that work, this is the 6th year it annoys me to finish it).
On the other hand a book that I read a bit, about 4 years ago, concerning Public Houses in America I think, was devastating. It said you just can’t go there alone, but only with an agent (we don’t have agents in Greece like you do there), because there are many ways to be taken advantage of and fail, and you will fail, perhaps severely. The writer was certain on that. What it also that book where it said that we can’t expect from editors to really refine our work at all? Yes, I keep that in mind every day, that’s one of the reason the book takes so much time. Every line, every verse, they are really ugly always.
P.S. I just love morning pages and the things revealed to me by The Artist Way lady. Thank you so much.
Like Brian also said, we must be Unstoppable.
So, to entrepreneurhip then, even with fear and doubt and a sense that we can’t even organize the basics (I really can’t, but I try that 1 hour every day and gosh, what a dynamic is there in the book!)
P.S.2 Another great obstacle all these years in front of me, maybe the greatest, was this: Tiredness. It’s one of the worst enemies I’ve faced. To wake up, start working, but feeling that the energy will soon fall. And many times it does, like yesterday -my hour of creating didn’t even happen. Did you face that damned demon? I don’t know if diabetes plays a role, but I still haven’t mastered it. I mean, if I had full energy, I would have conquered the world by now. Well, at least that’s what I feel. And imagine that I try with all the herbs, with that exercise etc. – but I can’t control some things like late night eating, nor can I get very good sleep. Totally Unstoppable in the day – what a place to have, even at the most devastating circumstances.
Learning this is probably what separates the “successful and recognized” artist from the otherwise as good as artist the former but “not successful as an artist”. It is a deep truth and internal paradigm shift many including myself fail to make. Thanks for covering it Steve!
Not everyone fits that pattern. Some of us are not readers, but are more writers, not because we don’t value reading; some are handicapped, and cannot spend long hours doing what others enjoy. Some of us are glued to a computer where the click of the keys is the only sound we hear even in the dregs of night, when the moon peers through the window, curious about writers who do not sleep. Who do not toss and turn in their beds, because the words offer the only twist needed at the end of a poem, script, novel or short story. We are the writers. We belong to the words and the words know it…
I’m in!
I’ve been self-employed for 30 years. There’s nothing like flying your own plane rather than being a passenger in someone else’s. It’s a hugely spiritual experience as well. It’s hard to get to know what that’s really about when you’re worshiping someone else’s ego, rather than following your own heart.
Thank you for speaking the truth. I needed that. I bounce between the two mindsets. I AM an entrepreneur, been in business for myself as a massage therapist for 25 years. Still, the old way of thinking that was drummed into us in elementary school dies hard. Yet the freedom of letting go of all that is delicious! Thanks again for the reminder.