Turning Pro

In his amazing book The War of Art, Steven Pressfield talks about ‘Turning Pro’.

Now you might read that and think he’s going to talk all about how to make money from your creative work and that would be an understandable conclusion to draw.

However, Pressfield doesn’t mention money at all. In fact, his narrative is all around a frame of mind, a level of commitment to your craft, and a seriousness in the cause. 

To elaborate let’s take for example two different people, John and Jane.

John is a screenwriter on a TV show and whilst he could technically be considered a professional, I don’t think Steven Pressfield would consider him a ‘Pro’.

You see John is always late to each meeting and when he does show up, he messes about and distracts the rest of the writing team.

When he does offer ideas in brainstorming meetings, they’re always joke answers that he’s just saying to try and make the person beside him laugh.

He frequently misses deadlines and managers have to coerce him to submit his drafts.

It’s exhausting having John working on your TV show.

Now we contrast John with Jane. Jane is a full-time account and technically an amateur filmmaker, but I believe Steven Pressfield would consider her a ‘Pro’.

You see Jane dedicates an hour of her day every day to her filmmaking. If she’s working that day she gets up an hour earlier to get her filmmaking in before work.

Whether it’s Christmas day or her birthday or if she’s hungover that day, you can bet with certainty that Jane will sit down for an hour and write her next film or edit her last film or problem solve her current film.

She is a dedicated filmmaker who is serious about her craft.

Although she is technically not considered a professional, I would classify her as a pro.

Now I think there are commonalities between the two individuals.

I reckon when they sit down to do creative work, they are both confronted with doubt, panic and fear of failure.

Where I think they differ is that John feels those feelings and runs.

When he gets close to actually doing some work he stands up and gets some coffee because how could you be expected to work in the morning without coffee?

When he’s had his coffee and is about to sit down again he spots someone he NEEDS to go talk to, because you have to be social don’t you?

But with Jane, she feels all those scary feelings and she stays seated.

She sits at her desk for the full hour working.

She wrestles with her doubt, she grapples with her project’s problems and in the words of Susan Jeffer’s she feels the fear and does it anyway!

So, whilst John might technically be considered a professional and Jane an amateur, I think she’s a pro and he’s not.