How Bad Do You Want It?

Watch the video below. 

What the narrator says and how the football player works—it all applies in whatever you want out of life. Athlete. Journalist. Writer. Filmmaker. Poet. Businessman. Financial Advisor. On and on and on. Somehow, these concepts apply. And because I love you, I've transcribed the words below in case you're at a job where they lock out YouTube videos. Those commies.

People ask me, more and more lately, Brandon, how are you already writing for these big magazines? How do you already have a book published? How do you do this and that? 

First: I don't consider myself successful. I have had success, and so I'm on track to be successful, but I'm so far from where I want to be. Some people shoot for the moon so they can maybe land in the stars or however that cliche goes. I'm shooting for Pluto. 

Two: I hate writing about myself, but if I could try to find a way to illustrate what I feel inside about what I want out of life, to illustrate the goals I have and how I feel as I try to make them happen—this comes close. 

Shoutout to my brother Kramer, the 6-4 stud lefthanded pitcher who got drafted by the Yankees and who just started his second minor league season. He shared this on Facebook yesterday with the caption "This just got me hypeddd." All three d's were totally warranted. Also, I'm pretty sure this was popular like six months ago, but hey, it still works.

Transcription after the break.

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Stories' Stories: Patrick Hruby on Humor in Journalism and More

"You have to know your subject. You can’t truly make fun of something or someone unless you know them well enough to write a serious piece."

Everyone, let's give Patrick Hruby a warm welcome to the blog. I've read him for years. Dude's good. He's been anthologized in the Best American Sportswriting series four different years. The first piece of his that I ever read was about a murdered cricket coach. It was excellent. Based on that, I'd never know that Patrick's favorite thing to do is write funny. At which he is also excellent. 

We got to emailing about some previous interviews here, which fell into discussing various stories, which fell into discussing humor somehow, and at some point I told him he should answer questions in an interview format, and, well, here we are today. We talk humor and all that, yeah, but Patrick also gives some killer insight into how to get better as a writer, how young guys like me can make a better go of it in the journalism world, and lots more. As usual, he got to do what he did best, which is write, and I'm sure you won't be disappointed by the results. 

Patrick Hruby, everyone!

(Raucous applause.)

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Stories' Stories: Sports Illustrated's Thomas Lake on Pop Herring, Making It In Journalism, and More

Today I am totally stoked to bring you this interview with Thomas Lake. Lake is a senior writer at Sports Illustrated. He is 31 years old. He wrote a good story in a recent issue of Sports Illustrated. ("Did This Man Really Cut Michael Jordan?") Only by "good" I mean "phenomenal" and other such over-the-top adjectives. I asked him some questions about it over email. Which was great, because it let Lake do what Lake does best, which is write, and he writes—as always—really, really well down there. Lots of smart thoughts, lots of good sentences. Just good stuff all around.

Since it's pretty long, I'll shut up now and just let the interview go. So ladies and gentlemen, Lake on making it as a journalist, coffee, how and why to get yourself good at what you do, and, of course, Pop Herring. I'd say "enjoy," but I know you will anyway, because Lake responded to everything just amazingly, so I'll just stop saying things and let you finally get to reading.

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