The Secret is there is no secret, just work......

Current mood: awake
Category: Life

Was talking on the IM with my mate Foreman earlier. He was asking me how he could get into writing material for stand-ups. In the end I told him to build a portfolio of stuff, pitch ideas across the net, meet people online and in the pub, and hope for the best. There is no short cut as far as I can work out. All I do know is the best day is when you have learned enough to realise you don't know that much. Then you can start working.
My Dad said to me years ago "The harder I work. the luckier I get." He was right, but he always works smart too. That seems to be a trick if there is one. Enjoy what you do, work hard, but work smart.
I'm reading a book by Geoff Colvin tagged at the bottom which is making me look at this idea. His concept is that people can be born with talent, the ones who are spectacular are those who follow deliberate practice, doing what others are doing but focusing and accepting it isn't going to be easy. The recent example I've encountered is how the Pale Imitations prepare for a show. They run the whole show 3 times, once to know this is the show that hangs together, twice to get the bile out and do the jokes that will never hit the stage (Rhonda and I do this when we run shows together), third time to lock it up. When Rhonda and I ran our Xmas shows we ran the tech with Seth at least twice before each show. When I've done Shakespeare the 6 weeks rehearsal is as much about learning the shape and tech aspects of what you are doing as learning the lines.
Funny enough it made me think of college. I did a history degree, and when we were tested, knowing the history was assumed, it was what you thought about it that was important.
In what I do now, I know a joke is never finished, and can always be reworded or sold differently. Life is a constant edit, and once you start doing it deliberately, its a lot of fun...

Currently reading:
Talent Is Overrated: What Really Separates World-Class Performers from Everybody Else
By Geoff Colvin