Keep Your Feet on the Ground

Authors dream big. The next great American novel. Sprawling, interconnected meta-verses. Top of the New York Times best-seller list. HBO and Disney in a bidding war. Respectful peers and devoted fans. More money than JK Rowling.

And yet most authors will never have any of it. Not for lack of talent, but for lack of effort. If you want to build an empire, you can’t even start by laying bricks without first mining the quarry and mixing the cement. And before that, learning how to mine and mix and lay. Sure, gaze into the clouds from time to time, but keep your feet on the ground.

Don’t merely tolerate grunt work. The wise know the grunt work is the dream. Learn to love the sweat, the struggle, the toil. Find the joy in every unpleasant task. And only relinquish one responsibility when a greater responsibility presents itself.

Good authors dream. Great authors make their dreams reality.