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When money is involved we get scared. We get scared that it’s going to stop being involved. That what we’re producing will end up not being good enough to exchange for amount of money we need/want. Valid fear, but what if there was no money? What if no money existed and instead we received fulfillment from connection. From actually making stuff. Then, as Seth Godin says in The Icarus Deception, it might just be about the art.

Icarus Deception, Seth Godin, Art, About the art, Creativity blogs

I think we just have to make stuff. Money and business will come if we work for it but the things we make, have to be art. Art can be paid for, but it could just be art. Maybe you make more money. Maybe you just make more art. You can choose but understand that making art does not have to mean making money. Both are possible and both are awesome but they don’t have to go hand in hand.

Don’t let the fear of not making money keep you from making art.

 

Happy Tuesday, yo!

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I know everybody woke up this morning not knowing what to do with themselves since the Olympics officially ended last night. No more Ice Dancing, photo finish races, or Bob Costas, or Bob Costas’ Eye’s. #Terminator. But have no fear my friends, I have one more Olympic story to share with you.

Adelina Sotnikova was Russia’s sweetheart. The golden girl who won her first National Championship at age 12. (12!!) But as the Olympics approached another star arose. Fifteen-year-old Julia Lipnitskaia stole the show with her precision and fearlessness. After a perfect performance that helped Russia win gold in the team event, Russia had a new sweetheart and Sotnikova was dubbed by members of the media as “the second Russian.”

“Maybe it was all for the best,” Sotnikova said. “It became an advantage for me because it made me so mad and want to win a gold medal.”

olympics, Sotnikova,

She was mad. So mad, that she decided to do something about it. In a moment were she felt more alone than ever. Like she had been betrayed, she showed up. She got mad, and she won a gold medal for Russia. Nobody was rooting for her. Nobody was betting on her. She had to get mad enough to decide for herself that she was going to win.  Afterwards, commentator and Olympic gold medalist Tara Lipinski commented, saying: “She was mad. Ask any skater what the best way to skate is and they will tell you: To skate mad.”

Remember this: If you feel like your tired of your situation or feel like you’re stuck or like the world is rooting against you. Get mad. Get mad enough that you ignore the haters and just pass them as you soar by. Get mad enough that it doesn’t matter what everybody else is doing. You’re going to win. You’re going to find a way to make YOUR success happen.

Don’t let the words of someone else fill up your story. It all you. Get mad and write it yourself.

Happy Monday!

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I remember hearing these words from Ira Glass for the first time in January 2012. It changed the way I thought about work, creativity, and myself. My first thought when I first heard it, “I wish I’d heard this sooner.”

This is video does it even more justice.

“The most important, possible thing you could do…”

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This week I had a big run-in with fear:

Who am I to do this?

I’m not good enough.

Nobody cares.

You know the drill.

The difference was this time, instead of having it pollute my mind all afternoon, I wrote them all down. Then I refuted them out loud. The crazy thing was, once they were written down and I could see them there, they looked different. See in my head they were giant billboard sized fears. Like everybody could see them and I was advertising them to the world. But once they were written down in my notebook I realized how small they actually were.

 “Regardless of what you want to do or who you are, fear will always see you as wholly unqualified for anything you ever dream or attempt.”

Fear and doubt love to let you know you’re wrong but they never show up to argue with your notebook. They only have words. Words can be big enough to fit on a billboard, or small enough to fit in your notebook. You have that choice. Don’t let fear and doubt design billboards in your life. They won’t be able to if you show them how small their words are.

 

Happy Friday!

Question:
What ways have you found to best refute fear and doubt? Are letting them design the billboards in your life?

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I cracked open Josh Kaufman’s book The Personal MBA yesterday and saw this on the first page of the intro:

Personal MBA, Josh Kaufman, Seth Godin, Chris Creed


“The critics are ALWAYS wrong.”
-Seth Godin

“Just what the world needs… Another writer.”

“Just what the world needs… Another wedding photographer.”

“Just what the world needs… Another songwriter.”

“Just what the world needs… Another person teaching.”

Critics like to use this one. To let you know that they don’t think what your doing will help anyone. That what you have to offer the world is not good enough, not big enough, not different enough. But obviously, it IS just what the world needs.  The only reason to listen to critics is to understand who your art is for and not for. The critic is always wrong because your art is not for them, but it is for somebody. It should still exist. It is, indeed, just the world needs. Thank you, critics.

When you tell someone about the idea you have, and they say, “Oh that’s just the world needs. Another that.“ Thank them for confirming your suspicions that you’re on to something. Then put them in your book as a thank you as well 🙂

 

Happy Thursday!

 

 

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  • Setsu - I always ask authors about criticism when I go to readings. So much of it comes down to this: If you said what you meant to say, the way you meant to say it, criticism is their problem not yours.ReplyCancel

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