This quote is from Steve Martin, the comedian, actor, and musician. I heard the quote when he appeared on an episode of the Charlie Rose show in 2007. Rose had him on to talk about his memoir Born Standing Up. At one point Steve Martin expressed frustration with some of the autobiographies he read because he thought they left out crucial aspects.

“[And I often get frustrated]… and say, ‘You left out that one part here, how did you get that audition for that one thing where suddenly you’re working at the Copa? How did this happen?’

And so Martin wrote his memoir to answer that “how” question. When Charlie Rose asked Steve Martin about what kind of advice he would give, he said:

“Nobody ever takes note of [my advice], because it’s not the answer they wanted to hear. What they want to hear is ‘Here’s how you get an agent. Here’s how you write a script….But I always say, ‘Be so good they can’t ignore you.’ “

“If somebody’s thinking, ‘How can I be really good?’ people are going to come to you.”

This philosophy of putting in the work and spending the time to mastering your craft is how Steve Martin launched himself into stardom.

I think it’s unavoidable to have lofty goals, dreams, and fantasies. But you really have to put aside those lofty dreams for a moment because you are not going to achieve greatness in 24 hours. However, if you follow this path you will make considerable improvement in your guitar playing and knowledge. This book is about “hitting the gym” so to speak. This is work. You will build “guitar muscle” if you do the exercises every day.

The guitar students who are day-dreaming instead of “going to the gym” get frustrated easily because in the current moment, their reality doesn’t meet their imagined expectations. 

It’s okay to be not great today but you are on the right path. The knowledge of the fretboard will become your foundation upon which you can musically express yourself in any way that you want.