THE AMATEUR SEEKS PERMISSION The amateur believes that, before she can act, she must receive permission from some Omnipotent Other — a lover or spouse, a parent, a boss, a figure of authority.

Are you working in a support capacity for an innovator because you're afraid to risk becoming an innovator yourself?

When we're living as amateurs, we're running away from our calling — meaning our work, our destiny, the obligation to become our truest and highest selves.

So here's to blackouts and divorces, to lost jobs and lost cash and lost self-respect.

We were amateurs living in the past or dreaming of the future, while failing utterly to do the work necessary to progress in the present.

practice be focused. It must possess intention. Our intention as artists is to get better, to go deeper, to work closer and closer to the bone.

face the real fight of our lives, which is to become who we are and to realize our destiny and our calling.

The professional trusts the mystery. He knows that the Muse always delivers.

The amateur and the addict focus exclusively on the product and the payoff. Their concern is what's in it for them, and how soon and how cheaply they can get it. Consumer culture is designed to exploit the amateur.