Steven Pressfield's Blog, page 121

Gravitational Fields Revisited

"Gravitational Fields" ran November of 2009 for the first time. It's visiting again for the long Thanksgiving weekend.
How do you get a project started? Sometimes the thoughts in our head are so scattered, we don't know where to begin. Here's a trick that my friend Paul Abbott taught me:
Just start.
Even if you don't know where
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"With the Old Breed"

[This post first ran in July but, reading it over recently, I felt E.B. Sledge's thoughts were particularly pertinent again, as close-combat wars continue to proliferate. See if you agree.]
E.B. Sledge was a Marine mortarman on Peleliu and Okinawa in WWII. His first-person memoir, With The Old Breed (which he reconstructed from notes scribbled in
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Open Markets

When I was in high school, "cool" was defined in many different ways.
There was "freak" cool, which was represented by

long unkempt hair,
ripped Wranglers,
a pack a Marlboros tucked into the left breast pocket of an oil-stained jean jacket, and
a MacGyver-like ability to construct a bong out of an


empty eight ounce orange drink (only Rockefellers drank real
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Habit

March 31, 2010, "Habit" first appeared on the site—and is revisiting the home page today as I'm on the road.
Konrad Lorenz, the Nobel Prize-winning zoologist, had a pet goose that he allowed the run of the house. The first day when the goose waddled in the door, there happened to be a mirror near floor
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So It Goes

He sensed Mary didn't like him. Something about the way she moved. Her actions were paired with loud, passive-aggressive noises. She didn't bang the ice tray in the sink to loosen ice cubes for her drink. A cool Cola wasn't on her mind.
And then she came out with it and told her husband's guest, Kurt
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David Ogilvy, Michael Lewis, and Brad Pitt

A few nights ago, I watched a 1970s era David Susskind interview with legendary advertising executive, David Ogilvy (1911–1999).  Ogilvy told a story about what he learned from George Gallup, the founder of the Gallup poll. Gallup put Ogilvy in charge of one of his Hollywood studio accounts. Conventional wisdom at that time (late 1930s-1940s)
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The 10,000 Hour Rule

I'm not sure whether Malcolm Gladwell was the first to identify this principle or was simply responsible for popularizing it. But his name is definitely associated with it.
The rule says that in order for an individual to master any complex skill, be it brain surgery or playing the cello, she must put in 10,000 hours
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What Can You Do With A Veteran?

"What can you do with a general when he stops being a general?" —White Christmas
The refrain from the White Christmas song, "What Can You Do With A General" has been running random laps through my mind for the past few decades.
I loved watching the musical as a kid, but the serious plot lines were
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At What Price Control?

On Monday September 30, 2002, Universal Music, Sony Music, Warner Music, Bertelsmann's BMG Music and EMI Group, plus retailers Musicland Stores, Tower Records and Trans World Entertainment agreed to pay a $67 million fine and to distribute $75 million worth of CDs to the public. The fine and damages settled lawsuits in 43 States over
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Out of My Comfort Zone

I've been out of the country for the past two weeks, in England and in Israel. (In fact I'm still overseas—and will be for two more weeks.) That's why I haven't put up any current posts. I've been so far out of my comfort zone, I couldn't make myself sit down and write. How far
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