“And so, I worked my day job while also writing and promoting the Dilbert comic for several years. I later wrote books and did licensing. For over ten years, I had the equivalent of three full-time jobs. I worked seven days a week, including holidays. I did everything I could do to promote the comic, putting 100 percent of my mind and body into it…
…But I didn’t merely want to succeed, I decided to succeed. And once you decide, the psychology of the situation changes. My crushing workload felt like a privilege. I reminded myself that almost any cartoonist would want to trade places with me. It was never easy, and it was never painless, but I was unstoppable because I had decided.”
– Scott Adams, Reframe Your Brain
__________
“I just wrote and deleted this phrase: I really miss those days.
I will forevermore, I expect, be trying to re-create the purity of that time. Having done nothing, I had nothing to lose. Having made a happy life without having achieved anything at all artistically, I found that any artistic achievement was a bonus. Having finally conceded that I wasn’t a prodigy after all, I had the total artistic freedom that is afforded only to the beginner, the doofus, the aspirant.”
– George Saunders, Author’s note to CivilWarLand in Bad Decline.
__________
I love to read successful authors looking back at their beginnings.
The wistfulness of creating something on the side.
A private creativity not to be shared with colleagues.
Creating because you have to.
No expectations except that it makes you feel more alive.
Rather than looking at their success and saying, “I wish that were me”, I feel they are looking at me, my fledgling efforts, saying “I would love to be in his shoes.”
Anonymous but energised.
No one can see me but for the first time I can see myself.
I’ve asked myself, “what do you want?”
My answer, “this…”
Conversations With Quotations 