THE PRINCIPLE

Working hard is just as important as working smart

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution ran an interview with Peter Bowerman, who is a commercial writer and author of The Well-Fed Writer. There was one sentence that really struck me as revealing the key element of success:

‘I began my writing career in January 1994 by making more than 1,000 phone calls to seek commercial writing jobs … by May, I was paying all my bills.’

This is where the rubber meets the road: Action!

• A thousand phone calls
• A hundred query letters
• Fifty meetings

And a bunch of manuscripts, screenplays, articles or other projects where you learn what you’re doing before one sells.

And let’s not forget preparation. An even bigger success story is that of the late Stephen J. Cannell, the writer-producer noted for The Rockford Files, The A-Team, Hunter, 21 Jump Street and many more. At one point, his was the most successful TV production company in Hollywood.

In an interview in Script magazine, he revealed the secret of his early success when he was pitching ideas for television:

‘I would spend nine days getting ready for a 45-minute meeting … you have to over-perform. It’s the secret almost nobody’s willing to do. A few people are, but most aren’t. Most people look to the right and left and see how much effort is being put in, and they match it. But I was willing to do it … [and that’s] why I got where I wanted to go.’

I had the pleasure of interviewing Cannell a couple of times and he was always generous with his time and advice. After selling his TV production company he forged another successful career as a novelist, working just as hard at that as he had at writing and producing TV series.

We creative people get very excited about inspiration. These two success stories remind us that perspiration is also important.