Artist = Entrepreneur, Part Three
If an artist is an entrepreneur (and she is), then she too must navigate the passage from externally-imposed structure to self-imposed structure.
She must move from imposed discipline to self-discipline; from external validation to self-validation; from external reinforcement to self-reinforcement.
In a way, she is like a nation that declares its independence. She has sued for the right to self-determination and she has won. Now what?
What is self-determination?
Ask yourself, of the new, free world you’re about to enter:
What time will I get up in the morning?
What will I eat for breakfast?
What thoughts will I permit myself to indulge in over breakfast?
Where do I go when I finish my meal?
What will I do once I get there?
What will I do when I encounter my own internal Resistance?
How do I answer the voice in my head that tells me I’m worthless, that my dreams are folly, that I’ve made a terrible mistake leaving that job at Ford?
How do I respond to true external adversity? Real-world competition? My own flawed business judgment? The bottom dropping out of the marketplace?
What happens when my rent doubles?
When my permits expire?
How do I placate my worried spouse, my anxious children? What do I tell them when I myself am more freaked out than they are?
How do I handle adversity?
How do I handle failure?
How do I keep going?
How do I keep from losing my mind?
The entrepreneurial mindset is not taught in high school and it’s not taught in college. They don’t school you in it at Harvard and they don’t teach it at the Iowa Writers Workshop.
Our education begins, unfortunately, the day we’re discharged from the army. Or when our career ends as an athlete. We enter this new world when we’re fired, or we quit, or the plant closes or the business moves to Mexico.
It’s scary.
It’s like one of those survivor shows on TV. They drop you out of a plane into the Amazon jungle. Good luck, sucker!
You’re on your own.
DO THE WORK
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.
THE AUTHENTIC SWING
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.
NOBODY WANTS TO READ YOUR SH*T
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.
TURNING PRO
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?"
I definitely like living the the truth in an independent nation as opposed to living a lie in a suppressive state no matter how alone or scary. Wishing all a productive week.
This really resonates. After finishing my first full Edinburgh Fringe solo comedy show run aged 58 in August, I felt something very similar — that strange mix of achievement and aloneness. Instead of going straight home, I headed north and climbed Mount Suilven in Assynt to reconnect with nature after the intensity. It was beautiful. X
Kkkk rir para não chorar.
Exatamente isso.
Abraço
After leaving a job at ford? How to placate….wife? Yeah I definitely resonate with those thoughts. Even with the thought that a new mindset is required, the toll, grind and mental warfare seems eternal. However you are keeping it real Steve. We appreciate you!
Una genialidad total esta reflexión and the they way it is written… beyond awesome
I will persevere. In order to serve myself, I must serve others. Others serving others. It keeps me in the game, and start the game anew.
Go for it, write now!
This is exactly where I find myself 9 months after retirement. Every question, perhaps slightly modified, but definitely in need of answers. Go fast, run towards the thing you fear (success?), be still, go within for answers (hello, is there anyone in here?), seek wise counsel (is that a person or a concept?) Who really knows? Outside, inside, right side up or upside down? Now you get how truly confused and afraid I am.
So damn true it hurts. Thank you
Thank you so much for the almost poetic passage, dear Steve.
I now got into the other jungle. I finally achieved the “shadow for my writing” job. I am a physical education teacher in schools of Thessaloniki.
Third day. Noone else from my everyday life said and will not say: “Ok dont worry, I will help you more now to bare the other burdens so that you can do what you wish. Now you must work every day with children, with a difficult home, so I will take other burdens from you not to lose balamce. You are worth it.”
Pf.
Let the shadow come.
Μολών λαβέ.
Reminder: I finished the book just in time before the shadow. Now on to bring the pieces together and get it out there. Prepare to see something unique.
“It’s like one of those survivor shows on TV.”
That really summarizes the feeling. Spot on.
Success or failure – it’s on me . . .
But to accept anything else, really wouldn’t be a life at all, would it?
The unknown is so much more exciting than the predictable.