Do the work

Steven Pressfi

eld

Do Th

e Work!

72
The Big Crash We were doing so great. Our project was in high gear, we were almost fi

nished (maybe we actually were fi

nished).

Th

en inevitably ...

Everything crashes.

If our project is a movie, the star checks into rehab. If it’s a busi-ness venture, the bank pulls our fi

nancing. If it’s a rodeo, our star

bull runs away with a heifer.

Th

e Big Crash is so predictable,

across all fi

elds of enterprise,

that we can practically set our

watches by it.

Bank on it. It’s gonna happen.Th

e worst part of the Big Crash is that nothing can prepare us

for it. Why? Because the crash arises organically, spawned by some act of commission or omission that we ourselves took or countenanced back at the project’s inception.Th

e Big Crash just happened to me. My newest book, a novel

called

Th

e Profession

, was done—aft

er two years of work. I was

proud of it, I was psyched, I was sure I had broken through to a level I had never achieved before.Th

en I showed it to people I trusted.

Th

ey hated it.

Let me rephrase that.

Th

ey HATED it.

Th

e worst part is, they were right. Th

e book didn’t work. Its con-

cept was fl

awed, and the fl

aw was fatal.

I’d love to report that I rallied at once and whipped that sucker into shape in a matter of days. Unfortunately, what happened was that I crashed just like the book.

I went into an emotional tailspin.

I was lost. I was fl

oundering.

Ringing the Bell Navy SEAL training puts its candidates through probably the most intense physical ordeal in the U.S. military. Th

e reason

is they’re trying to break you. SEAL trainers want to see if the