A Price to Pay

There are always consequences.

What matters is who pays the cost, who’s on the hook to fix it, who cares and what matters.

People want to void responsibility. We don’t want to be on the hook. That’s why creating is hard. It's why building anything in public is hard. Because you have to make promises, and then follow through.

This is what you have to do to be what Steven Pressfield calls a professional. You have to show up every day. The output doesn’t matter, but you have to be brave enough to make and keep a promise.

Many of us are too scared to make promises. We don’t want to be on the hook for an outcome. We don’t want to let people down.

You also have to care. Creating is a generous act. If you were only on the hook for yourself, shipping wouldn’t require much courage. The only person you would need to sell excuses to is your ego.