Review of Turning Pro by Steven Pressfield

Let´s turn pro.

Tittle: Turning pro

Author: Steven Pressfield

Editorial: Black Irish

Genre: Nonfiction

Country of origin: United States

Pages: 148

Days to finish it: 7

Year of publication: 2012

Personal score: 3/5

Preview: How the fuck we turn pro?

I´ll give you a resume of the book: it’s all about habits. Everything. It’s not how much you suffer, or how much it takes you to finish something. It’s all about fucking habits, what you should do, what you shouldn´t do, what you should take, and what you should leave behind. The book tells us how to identify those habits, and how to suffer in the way, because all the people who are truly successful have to suffer… one way or another.  

How did I get it?

Direct recommendation from my ex director of my last job, I was in the mood of reading something like this, well not so romantic and selfless, but something like this.

A little bit of the author…

He had a lot of jobs, from truck driver, fruit picker, to writer. He has written several screenplays for recognized movies. His book The war of art, is one of the most famous.

Review

So, as I was saying in the preview, this book is about how we turn pro, because right now you are an amateur, and obviously you want to transform into a pro, because the pro´s rule the world.

The author makes the difference, between the amateur and the pro, their several differences. Also compares the amateur with an addict and a junky. And in some way, he is right. We are so damn addicted to stupid things…

The book is about habits; it’s in your hands to identify which of those habits could work in your (empty) life.

Opinion

The entire book I was expecting to be told how damn will I transform into a pro… but that never happened. Maybe that was my mistake, I was expecting the explanation in a clear way, in a more digested way… and that wont happen. I guess me and my generation we´re so used to get all in one second.

This is the kind of book who tries to explain that you are capable to change things, the inner way to transform your environment and the awareness to challenge yourself. I mean, if a homeless who was picking fruit could succeed in Hollywood, everyone can. Right?

Exactly that´s the reason why I hate those kinds of books: they show a successful person that had to overcome a lot of hard things and obstacles to become what he is now. But the reality is not this way, because you are not that kind of person, and if you try to be like them, you will fail. Every person is different and works in different ways. Methods, manners, everyone is different.

Of course it has some good phrases, and the author knows how to write a book, it hooks you. It could work for some people, but not for me. I recommend this book for those who are empty of purposes, need direction in their life and are waiting for a “time in the life”…

I’m in the middle of being pro, I´m a rookie-pro.

Quotes

"The life we call "normal" isn't normal at all. A spouse and kids, a mortgage, a 9-to-5 job...who said that was life?"

"All addictions share, among others, two primary qualities. 1. They embody repetition without progress. 2. They produce incapacity as a payoff."

"There's a difference between failing (which is a natural and normal part of life) and being addicted to failure."