LEADERSHIP LIBRARY

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Do the Work

Steven Pressfield

 

IN BRIEF

This book goes along Steven Pressfield’s others on overing Resistance for creative success—The Artist’s Journey, The War of Art, and Turning Pro. It’s a fun, short read, and especially relevant when feeling creatively “stuck” or taking on a new project.

Key Concepts

 

Yes, there’s Resistance, but we also have allies

“Enough for now about the antagonists arrayed against us. Let’s consider the champions on our side: 

  1. Stupidity 

  2. Stubbornness 

  3. Blind faith 

  4. Passion 

  5. Assistance (the opposite of Resistance) 

  6. Friends and family”

Just start

“Don’t prepare. Begin.”

Go easy on research at first

“Let the unconscious do its work. Research can become Resistance. We want to work, not prepare to work. (Later we’ll come back and do serious, heavy-duty research. Later. Not now.)”

Get a first draft done

“One rule for first full working drafts: get them done ASAP. Don’t worry about quality. Act, don’t reflect. Momentum is everything. Get to THE END as if the devil himself were breathing down your neck and poking you in the butt with his pitchfork.”

Do, then reflect

“Let’s talk about the actual process—the writing/composing/ idea generation process. It progresses in two stages: action and reflection. Act, reflect. Act, reflect. NEVER act and reflect at the same time.”

You have to ship

“Because finishing is the critical part of any project. If we can’t finish, all our work is for nothing.”

Quotables

 

“Resistance aims to kill. Its target is the epicenter of our being: our genius, our soul, the unique and priceless gift we were put on this earth to give and that no one else has but us. Resistance means business.”

“Ignorance and arrogance are the artist and entrepreneur’s indispensable allies. She must be clueless enough to have no idea how difficult her enterprise is going to be—and cocky enough to believe she can pull it off anyway.”

“If you and I want to do great stuff, we can’t let ourselves work small. A home-run swing that results in a strikeout is better than a successful bunt or even a line-drive single.”

“When we ship, we open ourselves to judgment in the real world. Nothing is more empowering, because it plants us solidly on Planet Earth and gets us out of our self-devouring, navel-centered fantasies and self-delusions.”