Steven Pressfield is an American author of historical fiction, non-fiction, and screenplays, including his 1995 novel The Legend of Bagger Vance and 2002 non-fiction book The War of Art. He's publicly documented his 27-year journey to becoming a published author while driving tractor-trailers, working on offshore oil rigs, and picking fruit as a migrant worker, all while living out of his van, in his latest book Gov't Cheese as a way to inspire young authors, artists, and entrepreneurs to keep pursuing their dreams and overcoming the Resistance.
In this episode of The Storytelling Lab, Steve discusses the power of mentors along one's road to success and how each one of his (even those that were unaware of their mentorship to him) helped him finally achieve his goal.
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I'm not sure where I first heard Steven Pressfield speak.
It was most likely on a podcast with Tim Ferriss or Brian Koppleman. But wherever it was, it stopped me dead in my tracks.
Everything he said was like he was speaking directly to me.
He spoke about the Resistance (with a capital "R," as he says) that keeps us from following our dream. He spoke about the Ego and the Self and how they fight against each other and how he uses the Muse to show up every day for that fight.
Steven approaches art (writing, in his case) with a warrior's ethos—to fight that internal battle vs Self and Ego and sit down every day to do the work necessary to become a pro at your passion.
As he said in that interview, "An amateur that thinks with amateur habits and acts like an amateur will be defeated by this negative force, this Resistance."
And for the past five years, I've followed everything he's written or said, and used him as a mentor-from-afar to help me publish my first book, write and direct new films, and show up every day to "do the work" I need to do.
I live in Durham, North Carolina, and I knew that a big part of Steven's road to success came from his time in that town. He talks about it often.
But what I didn't know, was that he was working on a new memoir, where he tells the whole story of driving tractor-trailers in Durham, picking fruit as a migrant worker in Washington, and working offshore oil rigs in Louisiana and how all the mentors and bosses he had during his decades-long journey to publishing his first book helped him get there.
I finally connected with Steven a few months back during his press tour for Put Your Ass Where Your Heart Wants to Be. We chatted on social media about how much Durham had changed from how it was back in his day.
I asked him if he wanted to be on my show—full of an audience of listeners that were dying to pursue their own dreams—and he happily obliged.
What I noticed after that was something I knew I had to discuss with him.
We couldn't find the right time during those months because, within a few weeks, he was under another deadline (this time for Gov't Cheese, his memoir). That means he published two books in like six months!
My first book took me THREE YEARS.
But Steve is able to consistently create at that rate because he has created a system to fight his internal Resistance every day.
And that's why he's the mentor and I'm the mentee.
But it wasn't always like that.
In fact, it took Steven 27 YEARS to publish his first book, at the age of 53—almost three decades of being scared to start, telling himself his work wasn't good enough, or getting so close to the finish line only to "pull the pin."
And when I asked him after all that time trying for something, did he feel like it happen too late when he finally achieved it, he replied, "Absolutely not. And I think the idea of 'I'm too old' or 'It's too late' is also a form of Resistance."
"Imagine a tree in the middle of a sunny meadow and the tree is your dream, whatever that may be. As soon as that tree appears, a shadow is going to appear. That shadow is Resistance. It's just a law of nature.” - Steven Pressfield
The system that Steven has created to defeat Resistance is as simple as it gets.
Just do the work.
Back in his days driving tractor-trailers out of Durham, his boss Hugh Reaves told him, “Son, I can tell that you’re going through something in your mind, that you’re living out some kind of issues. I don’t want to know what they are. I don’t give a shit what they are. Just remember you drive for me. This company is a commercial enterprise designed to make money. You’re not living out any odyssey here. I hired you to deliver a load and you better deliver it every time. You’re a professional driver. Do it.”
And that's exactly how Steven faces his writing.
It is not a joke. It is a job. And it's his responsibility to deliver.
This is the essence of the roadmap that Steven has given us in his new memoir, Gov't Cheese.
It is full of all the Hugh Reaves-type mentors that helped Steven along his own Hero's Journey and the lessons he learned from them.
And in writing this story, he is guiding you on the path and becoming the mentor in your journey.
Now you have to do the work.
If you have a dream that keeps being put on hold due to your Resistance, this is the episode for you!
Some of the highlights of our conversation:
What made Steven finally write his story in a memoir, after initially resisting the idea
The power of the right mentors to help you along your journey
What Resistance really is, where it comes from, and what it feeds off of
Why you can't escape the Resistance and how to beat it back every day
How and when we lose hope in our childhood dreams and why it's so detrimental to who we become as adults
How to sit down and take actionable steps toward that dream once you eliminate the power of the Resistance
Viewing yourself as an entrepreneur to pursue your passion
How to navigate "The Wilderness" when your journey gets challenging
The moment in every "Hero's Journey" where you get scared and ask yourself, "Oh my god, what have I done?"
How this Wilderness Passage is truly a journey to find your authentic self
The two halves of life—The Hero's Journey and The Artist's Journey and how many people don't even make it out of the first half
How to deliver your gift to the world like a professional
Why, as an artist, you have to have consistent output and not wait for the audience's response. But just to keep working.
How to ween yourself off "third party validation" and ask what YOU think about what you've done (and then again... to just keep working).
Why it's never too late to achieve your dreams
The upcoming sequel to 2021's A Man at Arms
The differences and similarities in writing fiction and nonfiction
How to leverage new tools and the reduction in gatekeepers to get your art to its audience on your own
As always, I hope you enjoy the episode!
Peace and Love,
Rain
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