464 - Steven Pressfield Explains Why Talent Doesn't Matter
The Marie Forleo Podcast
Marie Forleo
4.7 • 1.8K Ratings
🗓️ 11 November 2025
⏱️ 45 minutes
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Summary
Want to stop self-sabotaging and start achieving? Steven Pressfield explains why overcoming resistance is the key to fulfilling your greatest creative potential.
He also reveals some of the revolutionary ideas from his books: The War of Art, Turning Pro, and The Artist's Journey. I love Steven so much and could not be more honored to have him in the studio. This conversation is what every dreamer needs to do their life's work, no matter how unconventional.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | I get asked all the time what my favorite book is. |
| 0:03.2 | And never once do I vary from War of Art. |
| 0:05.4 | Ah, well, thank you. |
| 0:06.8 | I'm glad it helps. |
| 0:07.8 | Yeah, it's, you're awesome, you're amazing. |
| 0:10.1 | So I want to start off with the reality of your creative journey because I feel like in |
| 0:14.6 | today's day and age, many of us suffer from this instant gratification idea. |
| 0:20.3 | We want everything. You know, I have people say, like, Marie, I've been working at this for three months and nothing's happening and I'm like, I want to just, you know, sign my head against a wall. So you wrote for 17 years before earning your first penny from writing. It took you 27 before you got your first novel, The Legend of Bagra Vance, |
| 0:38.1 | published. And it wasn't until you were in your early 50s that you actually started to make |
| 0:41.8 | a living from your words. Is that right? True. So here's something you said, and then I want to |
| 0:46.0 | hear your reaction to it. We cannot control the level of talent we've been given. We have no control |
| 0:51.3 | over the nature of our gift. What we can control is our self-motivation, our self-discipline, our self-validation, |
| 0:58.4 | and our self-reinforcement. |
| 1:00.1 | What we can control is how hard and how smart we work. |
| 1:04.3 | Wow, I said that, huh? |
| 1:05.1 | You said, I know, you say lots of good shit. |
| 1:06.9 | That's pretty inspired. |
| 1:10.2 | So you want my reaction? |
| 1:12.4 | Yeah. |
| 1:12.6 | Well, I agree with it completely. |
| 1:14.2 | Yeah. |
| 1:15.5 | I do, I'm definitely a believer. |
... |
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