SLAY Don't Wait

the online process of Matt Slaybaugh

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Nell Zink is tougher and purer than any of us

12.17.2014

Think you’re creative life is difficult? Think you’re keeping it real? Check out this “microinterview” with author Nell Zink, from The Paris Review.

Nell Zink’s novel The Wallcreeper came out in October and was listed last week among the 100 Notable Books of 2014 by the New York Times. Jonathan Franzen—who had earlier tried to interest publishers in Zink’s first novel, Sailing Towards the Sunset by Avner Shats—wrote, “Her work insistently raises the possibility that the world is larger and stranger than the world you think you know.”
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Whatever I was writing at the time, I knew there was no market for it and never would be, because there’s never a market for true art, so my main concern was always to have a job that didn’t require me to write or think. So after I got out of college I worked construction, mostly. I waitressed some in winter.

Cheers to you if your success is as well-earned as hers. Mine is not.

Filed Under: misc Tagged With: jobs, Nell Zink, work, writing

How to Succeed (thx, Sth)

06.12.2012

Seth Godin with another fine list. This is a bunch of ways to succeed (or not, depending on your situation.) Here are some of my favorites…

1. Be very focused on your goal and work on it daily
2. Go to college with someone who makes it big and then hires you
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4. Practice every day
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7. Do the emotional labor of working on things that others fear
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12. Inherit
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18. Contribute more than is expected
19. Give credit to others
20. Take responsibility
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26. Treat every gig as an opportunity to create art
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29. When dealing with employees, act like Steve. It worked for him, apparently.
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32. Have the ability to work harder and more directly than anyone else when the situation demands it

Some of those reflect my values. Some of those are funny.

Filed Under: Etc., Stories from the War Tagged With: success, work

Seth’s Blog: A great way to give thanks…

11.25.2011

Preach it, Brother Seth.

Seth’s Blog: A great way to give thanks….

…for the privileges we’ve got is to do important work.

Your job, your internet access, your education, your role in a civilized society… all of them are a platform, a chance to do art, a way for you to give back and to honor those that enabled you to get to this point.

For every person reading this there are a thousand people (literally a thousand) in underprivileged nations and situations that would love to have your slot. Don’t waste it.

Filed Under: Etc. Tagged With: Seth Godin, thanksgiving, work

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