Ty's bio will follow after the blog:
"You Have To Work Hard If You Want To Make Stuff Up"
You know that feeling you get when your books are selling thousands of copies a day? Yeah you do. It usually hits when you’re waking up because you know you just sold a whole bunch of books while you were snoozing. Making money while you sleep, isn’t that the American dream? If you don’t know that feeling, join the club.
Now don’t get down on yourself because you probably experienced something similar. It was the day you woke up and saw your first sale. Didn’t that feel great? Didn’t you pat yourself on your back? Hell, I did. As far as I was concerned, the floodgates had just opened and sales were on their way. Of course, for most of us, that flood was more like a trickle.
Most of us will start with a dribble of sales. But if you work hard, really hard, you can increase the flow. How do I know? I don’t really. But that’s what I’m doing and let me tell you, that dribble is slowly getting bigger. That’s all I need to keep going. And that’s all you should need to keep going. So long as you see progress and you know you’re giving it all you got, you have to keep going.
Everyone likes to think they’re talented but the truth is, very few of us have real talent. I’m talking about the kind of talent that lives within a prodigy. That is talent. Where you don’t have to try hard at all to succeed. Do you have that type of talent? I’ll go out on a limb here and answer for you. No. Like I said, very few people have real, honest talent. Luckily for the rest of us, there’s hard work. It’s the other viable route to success.
Believe it or not, not everyone tries hard. Some people strive to do what others are doing. Why? Because that’s what everyone is doing. Think about it. If everyone is doing the same thing or same amount of work, that becomes the average, right? If you strive to do what everyone else is doing, than theoretically, you’re striving for average. Therefore your results will be average. I know, I know, you’re probably saying this is voodoo science and part of it is, but you get what I’m saying.
But if you try just a little bit harder than everyone else, even just ten percent more, well guess what? You’re now in above average land. You know what comes with being above average? That’s right, above average returns.
So lets recap. To make it in this business, you have to work really hard. You must strive to get better and be above average (Remember it’s only 10% more than what everyone else is doing). Believe in yourself because in order for others to believe in you, you have to believe. Lastly, enjoy the ride.
I’ve seen people practice this advice in various fields of work and succeed. I’ve seen people ignore this advice and fail. Writing novels is just another field. Don’t get precious about it. We’re not curing cancer. We’re just imagining shit. That’s all.
Ty Hutchinson Bio
I’ve been in advertising for twenty-something years. It’s a very fun business that I continue to work in. Recently, I thought it might be fun to write a book. I was right. The result was my debut novel, Chop Suey. I’m fast at work on the second book, where we continue to follow the misadventures of Darby Stansfield. When I'm not busy solving clients brand problems or writing, you'll find me traveling the world, playing video games, eating, reading and exploring SF's Chinatown.
Chop Suey is available at Amazon, B&N and iTunes. You can also pick up my psychological short thriller, The Perfect Plan. It’s free right now at the same locations.
Stalk me at the following places:
Twitter: @latersbra
Good post, Ty. Thanks for the reminder. Now to write ...
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