A guy walks into a bank. He’s the CEO. Down the hall and to the left is a conference room where he delivers a speech to members of the board.
A speech I wrote for him.
“We walked out of that meeting a completely different company,” he later says.
Few moments in my career have meant more to me than this one. It was when I knew I’d mastered the ability to move people through words.
In the same week I received positive feedback from a writer I admire on a story I wrote. And an attractive woman slept with me, wanting to meet after she read the same story.
None of these people knew I’d spent the last month feverishly churning out an unreasonable amount of writing projects I’d taken on while in a depressive haze.
I create my best work this way. Work which clients pay me to deliver, unaware of the scene inside my office at 4am as my mind eats itself alive.
As demand rises, I fall further into insanity. We both get the results we want — and it’s always hard to argue with results.
But if you’re seeking a desired outcome, there are likely more ways than one to achieve it; perhaps one or two of them are less grueling.
And perhaps you should try one, if the process you use now leaves you with one less piece of yourself at the finish.
Unless, of course, you’re addicted to the suffering.
