Steven Pressfield's Blog, page 115

A Pro Seizes the Day

I met with a client on Wednesday about a new project. He put me right on the spot.
Where was book publishing going? How could he stay in the ring? How was I going to help him?
For quite a while, Steve Pressfield and I have been kicking around ideas for future Black Irish Books. We want
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What’s the Five Star Experience?

Best Buy and Five Star in China
Last week I caught the tail-end of the CNBC show “Best Buy: The Big Box Strikes Back.”
According to the show, Best Buy “closed its nine American style stores in 2011.” In China, Best Buy had become the Brick portion of the “Brick and Click” method of buying. Consumers went
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Publishing is Personal

I admire Macmillan CEO John Sargent.
He had the courage to pre-emptively send an email (read it here) to hundreds of industry insiders this past Wednesday. In that email, Sargent did something that gives me great hope about the future of publishing.
He used the word “I.”
“I am Macmillan’s CEO and I made the decision to
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My Head in the Morning

When I get up in the morning, I’m almost always in a foul mood. I’m irritable, I’m short-tempered, I’m irascible. Coffee doesn’t help. I can’t watch Matt Lauer. If I have to drive anywhere I’m always pissed off at the other cars and muttering under my breath. I’m not happy with myself, I’m not happy with
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The View From A Year

My best friend lives hundreds of miles away. I call her those nights when the moon is full, sitting low and large in the sky, as if George Bailey lassoed it in for a better view. Always, I ask: “Does the moon look the same to you?” I want to know: “Are we
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High Concept

Flash back with me to the late 80s/early 90s, the screenwriting heyday of Shane Black, Joe Esterhazs and the spec script. At that time, studios were looking for a very specific type of material. That material was called High Concept.
The High Concept era was the exact time I started finding work in Tinseltown. High Concept
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The Professional Mindset

Have you ever wondered why so many CEOs and high-achievers (including sports superstars like Michael Jordan and Wayne Gretzky) are so taken with the game of golf? It's not just because they get to wear white belts and plaid pants.
(With apologies to everyone who lives along the banks of the Cuyahoga, here is Tom Wolfe's
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What's the Five Star Experience?

Best Buy and Five Star in China
Last week I caught the tail-end of the CNBC show "Best Buy: The Big Box Strikes Back."
According to the show, Best Buy "closed its nine American style stores in 2011." In China, Best Buy had become the Brick portion of the "Brick and Click" method of buying. Consumers went
More >>

Betting on Yourself, Part Two

In the past few weeks we've been talking about risk, specifically the universe of hazard that the artist and entrepreneur willingly and consciously inhabit. We've talked about operating on two tracks—the commercial track and the pure-soul track—and about betting on yourself. Today I want to take the discussion deeper into the realm of nuts and
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Rethinking Book

I hesitated when I read the words video book in one of Steve's upcoming posts.
Maybe video? Or video series? But, not book.
My early definition of books:
My childhood favorites—Tikki Tikki Tembo and Blueberries for Sal—are heavy on images. The images faded in grade school, forcing an egg-headed edition of Ramona Quimby, and Meg, Charles Wallace, and
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