“The best people possess a feeling for beauty, the courage to take risks, the discipline to tell the truth, the capacity for sacrifice. Ironically, their virtues make them vulnerable; they are often wounded, sometimes destroyed.”
“The big change in my life, going from someone who was struggling to pay bills to where I am now, which is having a lot of fun working on a seven figure business with amazing people, was that I decided everybody that encounters me ever is going to benefit more than I benefit.
I don’t always achieve it; I try real hard. But it guides your interactions with people and things become obvious.”
“Make yourself come up with a topic sentence. […] Write ‘Topic:’ at the top of the page and then in one sentence describe what it is you are about to write.
It’s actually so much harder to do [than you think] and it’s not just a 4th grader thing to do. It gives you focus and it centers you, and, you know what, at anytime when you’re writing you can go back and change the topic.”
Here’s some more writing tips on this site, and for all you freelancers out there (or wannabe freelancers), here’s a big ol’ guide about how to become a freelance writer.
From a recent talk Erik Spiekermann gave.
We work for your customers. We may have to take their side at times.
Challenge us. Complacency is the enemy of great work.
We don’t give answers. Unless we can explore your question.
We are not suppliers. Partnership gets the best results.
Talk to us. We thrive on feedback.
Trust us. You hired us because we can do something you cannot do.
Pay us. Our work adds to your bottom line, so invest in our future.
“Speed and Deep are not opposites.
Cooperation doesn’t mean consensus.
Idea generation is not idea selection.
Failure is part of the process.
Everything restarts as soon as it is finished.”
“What the issue comes down to for me is this:
I believe that life happens on two levels. The body-level tells us to go commercial. The soul-level tells us to follow our hearts.
If you’re lucky, you’re like Bruce Springsteen. You live on the heart level and you never have to leave it. You ignore every concept of “what will sell.” Instead you dive deep into your own world and your own passions. You go from Born to Run to Darkness on the Edge of Town to The River to Born in the USA and you keep going.
If you’re the Boss, you don’t have to sell out. You don’t have to pander to your audience. Instead you lead them. They want you to. You tell your story, follow your obsessions—and, holy Asbury Park, your secret, inner, crazy life turns out to be their secret inner crazy life too.”
I’ve got friends on both sides of this argument.
Most of the ones on the “for love” side do that for a living—they tell people how to do what you love for a living.
Most of the ones on the “for money” side seem to say so just to spite the guys on the love side.
Pressfield helps me to cut through the platitudes and go to my story: what’s been my experience?
I’ve been in safe and profitable jobs. For one reason or another I’ve quit every one.
I’ve been enthusiastic about lots of stuff — been in love a lot — and most of those haven’t made me much money.
But I seem to make better friends through the love stuff. (Most of the friends that I mentioned above, in fact. Except for one, whom I met when I was in one of those jobs I quit).
And doing the love stuff has led me to where I am now, creating a learning community for online entrepreneurs. I can’t tell if this one’s more for the love or for the money. I’m hoping it’ll do both nicely.
And it should be said, of all the love stuff I’ve done, I never really went all in on any of them. This is the first time I’ve had enough experience, stones and muscles to focus and dedicate myself to anything.
So that’s my new answer to the question: what does your own experience tell you?
“The pay’s not great but the work is hard.”
“Just get 5 minutes that kills everywhere — you don’t have that you don’t have anything. All these comedians say, ‘I’ve got 2 hours.’ Who wants to hear two hours of material!? Just get 5 minutes that kills everywhere. You only need 20 minutes in LA to become a star.”
This was Leno’s advice to Rob when Rob was getting started in comedy. Everyone who saw him then says Jay was the best. We all know now he’s also a smart businessman.
“Since copywriting is interface design, you can do an awful lot of great design in a text editor. Don’t worry about where things will go, or how they will fit. Worry about explaining it clearly and then build the rest of the interface around that explanation.”