Steven Pressfield

And so you're right.

Turning pro does have a cost.

A lot of times, you know, if you take that course, you have to leave people behind, you know, people who were your friends.

You can't be friends with them anymore, you know, because a lot of times groups of friends will have an unspoken kind of compact among them that we're all going to stay mediocre, right?

that's the deal right and in fact um goodwill hunting that was what that movie was about right that uh the um um matt damon character was this mathematical genius right and uh his buddies all of his you know fist fighting boston southie guys were had this compact they were all going to stay you know kind of blue collar guys and we're all going to be buddies we're going to have a wonderful

And then there's that great scene at the end of the movie where Ben Affleck, his best friend, says to him, you know, if I come back 20 years from now and you're still here, I'm going to kill you because you won the lottery.

You got this thing, this gift, and you've got to use it.

So there are those kind of pacts that people make.

We're all going to stay mediocre right here where we are.

And if you, Andrew, try to rise above, you'd be the tall poppy.

Somebody's going to, you know, cut you off.

So sometimes we do have to leave people behind.

I absolutely believe that.

And, you know, you're right, Andrew.

The creative life, I think, is a two-sided thing.

You know, the one side is kind of the blue-collar practical aspect of being a professional that, you know, you can sit down, you can do your work, you discipline yourself, you know what you're going to do.

But the other side is that where do ideas come from?

They don't come from us.

They come from someplace else.

And so I'm definitely a believer that we live on the material plane here, but there's a plane above us.