I love this video so much.
I love this guy so much. If I owned a company – any company – and was hiring, this is the person who I would hire.
So much of life comes down to grit. Persistence. Commitment. Tenaciousness. Practice. Yet so few often seem to be willing to put in the time.
I write novels. Though some may argue this requires a certain degree of talent, I would argue that the most important attribute I possess is the willingness to commit my ass to a chair for a long period of time.
Truthfully, I believe that it’s been my willingness to sit in a relentless, non-precious, non-idealized way for an incredibly long period of time that has led me to my writing career.
I started writing in late November of 1988 when I was 17 years-old, and it is not an exaggeration to say that I have written every single day of my life since then.
I have not missed a day.
Wedding day. Birth of my children. Death of my mother. Pneumonias. Honeymoon. Vacation. Concussions. Homelessness.
I have not missed a day.
When I was younger, I wrote in journals. I wrote letters. Short stories, Newsletters. Poems. Zines. Dungeons & Dragons adventures. Comics. My classmate’s term papers (my first paid writing gig).
In 1990 I began blogging on an early version of the Internet known as a Bulletin Board System.
In 2004 I took a graduate level class on blogging and began blogging regularly, first at a blog entitled Perpetual Perpetuity, and then Conform Me Not, and now here. Since 2004, I have not missed a day.
I started writing at the age of 17. I published my first novel at the age of 39.
Talent? It took me 22 years of constant, consistent, relentless daily practice before any publisher was interested in my work. Maybe I’m a talented writer, or maybe I simply forged myself through hard work into someone who looks like a talented writer.
