Author Quotes: Shaw.

“When I was a young man I observed that nine out of every ten things I did were failures. So I did ten times more work.” -George Bernard Shaw.

Interesting Literature posted yet another great set of quotes, this one from George Bernard Shaw, and this was easily the first to really grab me. It’s simple and sweet with a very important message: keeping working, folks. And, better yet, work harder. The more you work on it, the more likely your chance of success. It’s a message that I’ve adopted whole-heartedly these days, especially when it comes to publishing and getting your work out there.

Lately, I have been struggling a little bit to get ten times more work done, but the effort is certainly there. Plowing through more stories. Trying to get more books published. Trying to comment to more blogs. The whole time, the mantra repeats in my head, “The more you do, the more you’ll succeed.” Sometimes, you seem to fail so much that it makes you wonder if you’re only trying to delude yourself, but then, you finally hit your mark, and you realize all the hard work has paid off.

….and then on to the next one. It’s a never-ending battle, really, but at least it’s one we (for the most part) enjoy. I think one of the things that people underestimate about this business and anything art related is how much work is really required. I’m constantly thinking about my work, doing my work, it’s pervasive in every aspect of my life. And, while all that hard work can really pay off in creating a lot of content and material, there’s still a lot more work to be done if you’re going to get that content and material to be successful. Even then, you could market the heck out of it, but there’s a factor of luck you can’t control that will also weave its way into your success. The whole “right place, right time” syndrome. We can’t control our luck. But we can control our work, so we just keep on it, keep it going, and keep trying, pushing past those failures and getting on to the successes.