This One Weird Trick: There Is No Trick
Lawrence of Arabia had the answer: the trick is not minding that it hurts. There is no shortcut in business or creative work. You put in the reps.
By Brett Godfrey
“What’s the trick?”
“The trick is not minding that it hurts.”
I was watching Lawrence of Arabia again, and early in the film T.E. Lawrence is at his office desk. He lights a colleague’s cigarette with a match, then pinches out the flame with his fingers. No flinch, no reaction. It is clearly a habit. The colleague tries it, yelps “Oh! It damn hurts!” and asks how it is done. Lawrence smiles and gives his answer: the trick is not minding that it hurts.
It made me think of the ads that have become a punchline. This One Weird Trick to lose the weight, buy the house, become a billionaire overnight. We all know the shape of them by now. Nobody drops fifty pounds of weight by accident, and nobody finds a down payment in the couch cushions.
Here is what the work has taught me, again and again. There is no shortcut. There is no trick. In business, in creative work, in life, you have to put in the reps. Do the work. Log the miles. That is the only way to be ready, ready to succeed and ready to endure whatever comes.
It is a big part of why I am doing this at all. Writing in public, sharing the creative process as it happens, is me applying the no-tricks philosophy to my own work. I do not know yet where it leads. I know I will learn and grow on the way there.