By Matt Linklater, SVP Sequoia System
One of my favorite writers is Don Winslow. Winslow started writing while he was on stakeouts when he was still working as a Private Investigator for the State Department.
I listened to an interview with Winslow recently and the interviewer seemed very interested in the film based on one of Winslow’s books. What jumped out of the interview for me was something Winslow said about half way through. He said he started writing his first book while sitting in his car on drug stakeouts. He said he gave himself the task of writing 5 pages per day. And that’s what he did.
Today Winslow published several books and, his writing will ENGULF you (check out “Power of the Dog” for a book that is so hard to put down it may as well have been written in Velcro). “He gave himself the task of writing 5 pages per day. And that’s what he did.” Anyway, here’s the point: Winslow had every excuse under the sun why the “conditions” weren’t right to start writing. Remember: He sat in his car on stakeouts looking after the bad guys. But here’s the thing: No matter who you are or where you live: The conditions will NEVER be just right. The timing will NEVER be just right. Never. Ever. The good news is – they don’t need to be. All that needs to happen is you START. All you ever have to do is START – wherever you currently “are” in life. And START again the next day. You just keep STARTING no matter what. Keep starting from where you left off the day before and the FINISHING will take care of itself. Winslow proves it. “Keep starting from where you left off the day before and the FINISHING will take care of itself.”
If you ever find yourself frustrated you don’t have enough time or the right conditions to develop your sales skills and knowledge, just cast your mind back to this story and think of Don Winslow sitting in his car developing himself into one of the best fiction writers on the planet. I’ll see you at the top!