The War of Art
Steven Pressfield
Summary
Steven walks through the difference between being a professional and an amateur when you're a creative. Loved his take on confronting your fear and getting over mental block.
Rating: 4/5
Notes
It’s not the writing part that’s hard, what’s hard is sitting down to write
The enemy is a very good teacher - Dalai Lama
Resistance is the enemy within and it’s always lying and full of shit
Resistance is driven by fear, master that fear and conquer resistance
The danger is greatest when the finish line is in sight
Never forget, this very moment we can change our lives
People who criticize others are probably doing it out of resistance for they are made they have not lived their authentic lives
The counterfeit innovator is widely self-confident, the real one is scared to death
The more scared we are of work or calling, the more sure we can be that we have to do it
The professional knows success comes as a by-product of work
The professional has to love being miserable
Show up every day to work no matter what
Do not over identify with your pain
Nothing is as empowering as real-world validation, even if it’s for failure
The price for being in the arena and not on the sidelines is failure
Any job takes twice as long as you think and costs twice as much. Accept and embrace that
A professional accepts no excuses
The professional cannot take rejection personally because to do so reinforces resistance
Humiliation, like rejection and criticism, is the external reflection of internal resistance
Envy driven criticism is the supreme compliment because the critic hates most that which he would’ve done himself if he had the guts
The most important thing about art is work, nothing else matters except sitting down every day and trying
When we deliberately alter our conscious in any way, we’re trying to get to the self where all our ideas and dreams com from
The real fear is the fear that we will succeed
Don’t operate in a hierarchy. Do your work for your own sake
Operate in a territory:
- It sustains without external input
- It returns exactly what you put in
- It can only be claimed alone
- It can only be claimed by work
Don’t cheat the world your contribution, give us what you got
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Buy the book here
Free E-book download here
Make Something Wonderful
Steve Jobs
Summary
The life of Steve Jobs in his own words
Rating: 5/5
Notes
Make something wonderful and put it out there
‘You appear, have a chance to blaze in the sky, then you disappear’
When you’re a stranger in a place, you notice thing you don’t otherwise (Jobs after India trip)
Whenever you start with nothing, always shoot for the moon. You have nothing to lose.
You never achieve what you want without falling on your face a few times
Never be afraid to fail. You never achieve what you want without falling flat on your face a few times
We are never taught to listen to our intuitions, to develop and nurture them. But if you do pay attention to these subtle insights, you can make them come true
Creativity equals connecting previously unrelated experiences and insights others don’t see
Believe that some of what you follow with your heart will come back and make your life richer. And it will. And you will gain even firmer trust on your instincts and intuitions
Make your avocation your vocation. Make what you love your work.
The journey is the reward. The reward isn’t in the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, it’s in crossing the rainbow
To find A+ talent, if experienced, look at their track record and results
The world we know is a human creation and we can push it forward
The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do (read whole ad ‘here’s to the crazy ones)
We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then is not an act but a habit - Aristotle
Hire people better than you are
You can’t plan to meet the people who will change your life
It’s impossible to connect the dots looking forward, but they make sense looking backwards so you have to trust the dots will somehow connect in your future
Everything around you that you call life was made up by people no smarter than you
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Buy the book here
Free E-book download here
