Nobody ever takes note of [my advice], because it’s not the answer they want to hear. What they want to hear is “Here’s how you get an agent, here’s how you write a script,”…but I always say, “Be so good they can’t ignore you.” – Steve Martin
In the Marble and the Sculptor, Keith Lee writes that people should follow their work. Not their passion. “Become dedicated to what you do. Delve into deliberate practice and work. Become a craftsman. Devote yourself to your practice or profession.” He states that three decades of research show that the traits that make us happy with our work have little to do with our passion. “Find what you can really pour your time into as a lawyer and do that.”
To devote hours to something, you have to convince yourself that it’s worth it. To convince yourself that it’s worth it, focus on the goal of mastery. Often times our passion for our work follows the skill.
“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then is not an act, but a habit.” – Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, Book 2
