I wrote for 17 years before I earned my first penny (a $3500 option on a screenplay that was never produced).

​

I wrote for 27 years before I got my first novel published (The Legend of Bagger Vance).

​

During that time I worked 21 different jobs in eleven states.

I taught school, I drove tractor-trailers, I worked in advertising and as a screenwriter in Hollywood, I worked on offshore oil rigs, I picked fruit as a migrant worker ...

​

WHY AM I TELLING YOU THIS?

​"Because the “war of art” is not about genius, it’s about work.​

We can’t control the level of talent we’ve been given.

We have no control over the nature of our gift.

What we can control is our self-motivation, our self-discipline, our self-validation, and our self-reinforcement.

We can control how hard and how smart we work."

​

"Most of us have two lives: the life we live, and the unlived life within us. Between the two stands Resistance". It is often manifested as procrastination, and the more important an action is for personal evolution, the stronger the Resistance."

​

"Never forget: This very moment, we can change our lives. There never was a moment, and never will be, when we are without the power to alter our destiny. This second, we can turn the tables on Resistance. This second, we can sit down and do our work". 

​