Discipline Is Destiny by Ryan Holiday, chapter 23:
It’s called “Wait for This Sweet Fruit.”
It’s very short—only a few pages, a few hundred words—but profound, a lesson for all writers.
It’s about Joyce Carol Oates, the author, about how she never publishes her work immediately.
Never miss a VeryGoodCopy Micro-Article: SUBSCRIBE
“Each of her manuscripts, after the completion of the first draft, is placed in a drawer, where it sits, sometimes for a year or more,” Holiday says. “There, it gestates. Oats thinks about other projects. She explores other ideas. She reads more. Researches more. Lives more. Thinks more.”
This process has almost nothing to do with the quality of her first drafts.
“It’s that we must always doubt our first burst of excitement and, indeed, anything that comes easily,” explains Holiday. “Oates’s patience is about acquiring perspective, about giving all the tiny decisions that go into a book enough time to get them right.”
A year ago, November 2021, I started working on my first video course.
I wasn’t in a rush to finish it and make a buck. In fact, I wanted to go slow. I wanted to take my time and let the work gestate. Because I knew the value of creative patience long before reading “Wait for This Sweet Fruit.”
So, I committed to a slow and thoughtful process:
Each day, except Sundays, I worked on the course for one hour. I set a timer for 60 minutes and sat down and picked up where I left off the day before. So far I’ve spent over 300 hours creating a 2ish-hour course. It’s called:
It’s the first video course in The VGC MASTERCLASS Series.
It will be released in January, 2023 at full price.
In the meantime, I’m doing a waitlist pre-sale:
Join the waitlist to get 50% off.
→ Waitlist closes: Monday, November 14.
→ Pre-sales opens: next day, Tuesday, November 15.
→ Pre-sale ends: Monday, November 21.
You’re only eligible for the 50% discount if you join the waitlist.
Already on the waitlist? Great! Thank you. I’ll send you an email with the discount code on November 15. In the meantime, please take a few seconds to support my first course launch: simply like & comment on this LinkedIn post.
Thank you for all your amazing support over the years, folks.
I can’t wait to share my best work with you.
LEARN TO PERSUADE
✅ Join thousands of email subscribers
✅ Less than 0.4% of readers unsubscribe
✅ Never miss a Micro-Article or -Interview
✅ Get instant email access to VGC's founder
✅ Be first in line to get new, free Micro-Courses
