Create It Anyway

"Monsters are real... They live inside us, and sometimes, they win." - Stephen King

When Stephen King was in junior high, he wrote his own novelized version of the horror movie The Pit and the Pendulum, printed it on his brother's press and, by lunchtime, had sold about 40 copies to classmates at a quarter apiece. His elation didn't last. He was called to the principal's office and made to give all the money back. Worse was the scolding. He was told he was talented, so why would he waste his abilities writing 'junk like that?'

Pay no mind to the hundreds of millions of books he'd go on to sell or the praise of his peers. By his own account, he spent far too many years ashamed of what he wrote, all stemming from a misguided critique he heard as a kid. King would later conclude that, unfortunately, our God-given abilities are still fair game to people who don't understand art. As he puts it, whatever you create,

"someone will try to make you feel lousy about it."

I highly recommend his memoir, On Writing. Part autobiography, part love letter to the craft, it's an excellent guidepost for anyone pursuing a goal.