Steven Pressfield

You know, a lot of things we're talking about here today, Andrew, they don't teach you in school.

You know, nobody teaches you about what if you have a one hit.

How do you handle – nobody even – the topic doesn't come up at all.

Or how to handle negative criticism, how to handle positive stuff like that.

What's the idea of turning pro?

Nobody – you never learn this, you know.

And they're all absolutely vital life skills that you hope you encounter mentors along the way that teach you because it's not taught in school.

I hope we haven't squeezed all the fruit out of the orange here.

We can do this again sometime.

You know, you've got another 50-plus years ahead of yourself.

So I know when you turn 50, you turn 40, you turn 30, you say, oh, my God, my life is over, you know.

Not so, you know.

Take it from me.

I'd give my left arm to be 50 again.

You got it made.

I will if you will.

Um, I'm, I'm a great believer that work is everything, you know, um, particularly for, for a writer because your writer has a, has a long career, you know, you can be 70 years old, 80 years old, still working, you know? Um, and, uh, uh, You know, I've said this before, that like for 30 years, well, now people tell me that I have talent. But for 30 years, they told me I was a bum.

Um, I'm, I'm a great believer that work is everything, you know, um, particularly for, for a writer because your writer has a, has a long career, you know, you can be 70 years old, 80 years old, still working, you know? Um, and, uh, uh, You know, I've said this before, that like for 30 years, well, now people tell me that I have talent. But for 30 years, they told me I was a bum.

Um, I'm, I'm a great believer that work is everything, you know, um, particularly for, for a writer because your writer has a, has a long career, you know, you can be 70 years old, 80 years old, still working, you know? Um, and, uh, uh, You know, I've said this before, that like for 30 years, well, now people tell me that I have talent. But for 30 years, they told me I was a bum.

And I was a bum because I hadn't learned how to do it. You know, I didn't have the confidence. I hadn't found a voice or anything like that. So work, I think, is you have to have, obviously, you have to have some talent. But Work is 90% of it, I think. You can get better. That's the good news. No matter how bad a first draft is, the ninth draft can be really good.