Show Your Work!
A New Way of Operating
âCreativity is not a talent. It is a way of operating.ââJohn Cleese
If you just focus on getting really good, Martin says, people will come to you.
- You donât really find an audience for your work; they find you. But itâs not enough to be good. In order to be found, you have to be findable.
1. You Donât Have to Be a Genius.
Find A Scenius.
âGive what you have. To someone, it may be better than you dare to think.ââHenry Wadsworth Longfellow
Be An Amateur.
âThatâs all any of us are: amateurs. We donât live long enough to be anything else.ââCharlie Chaplin
- Sometimes, in the process of doing things in an unprofessional way, they make new discoveries.
âIn the beginnerâs mind, there are many possibilities,â said Zen monk Shunryu Suzuki. âIn the expertâs mind, there are few.â
- âOn the spctrum of creative work, the difference between the mediocre and the good is vast. Mediocrity is, however, still on the spectrum; you can move from mediocre to good in increments. The real gap is between doing nothing and doing something.â Amateurs know that contributing something is better than contributing nothing.
- Amateurs might lack formal training, but theyâre all lifelong learners, and they make a point of learning in the open, so that others can learn from their failures and successes.
- This is yet another trait of amateursâtheyâll use whatever tools they can get their hands on to try to get their ideas into the world.
- Share what you love, and the people who love the same things will find you.
You Canât Find Your Voice If You Donât Use It.
âFind your voice, shout it from the rooftops, and keep doing it until the people that are looking for you find you.ââ Dan Harmon
Read Obituaries.
âRemembering that Iâll be dead soon is the most important tool Iâve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everythingâall external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failureâthese things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked.ââSteve Jobs
2. Think Process, Not Product.
Take People Behind The Scenes.
âA lot of people are so used to just seeing the outcome of work. They never see the side of the work you go through to produce the outcome.ââMichael Jackson
- âBy putting things out there, consistently, you can form a relationship with your customers. It allows them to see the person behind the products.â
- Audiences not only want to stumble across great work, but they, too, long to be creative and part of the creative process. By letting go of our egos and sharing our process, we allow for the possibility of people having an ongoing connection with us and our work, which helps us move more of our product.
Become A Documentarian Of What You Do.
âIn order for connection to happen, we have to allow ourselves to be seenâreally seen.ââBrenĂ© Brown
- But whatever the nature of your work, there is an art to what you do, and there are people who would be interested in that art.
- You have to turn the invisible into something other people can see.
âNo one is going to give a damn about your rĂ©sumĂ©; they want to see what you have made with your own little fingers.â - David Car
3. Share Something Small Everyday.
Send Out a Daily Dispatch.
âPut yourself, and your work, out there every day, and youâll start meeting some amazing people.ââBobby Solomon
- A daily dispatch is even better than a rĂ©sumĂ© or a portfolio, because it shows what weâre working on right now.
- The form of what you share doesnât matter. Your daily dispatch can be anything you wantâa blog post, an email, a tweet, a YouTube video, or some other little bit of media. Thereâs no one-size-fits-all plan for everybody.
- The trouble is, we donât always know whatâs good and what sucks. Thatâs why itâs important to get things in front of others and see how they react.
âOne day at a time. It sounds so simple. It actually is simple but it isnât easy: It requires incredible support and fastidious structuring.ââRussell Brand
The âSo What?â Test.
âMake no mistake: This is not your diary. You are not letting it all hang out. You are picking and choosing every single word.ââDani Shapiro
- Be open, share imperfect and unfinished work that you want feedback on, but donât share absolutely everything. Thereâs a big, big difference between sharing and over-sharing.
Turn Your Flow Into Stock.
âIf you work on something a little bit every day, you end up with something that is massive.ââKenneth Goldsmith
- âFlow is the feed. Itâs the posts and the tweets. Itâs the stream of daily and sub-daily updates that remind people you exist.
- Stock is the durable stuff. Itâs the content you produce thatâs as interesting in two months (or two years) as it is today.
- Your stock is best made by collecting, organizing, and expanding upon your flow.
Small things, over time, can get big.
Build A Good (Domain) Name.
âCarving out a space for yourself online, somewhere where you can express yourself and share your work, is still one of the best possible investments you can make with your time.ââAndy Baio
- A blog is the ideal machine for turning flow into stock.
- One little blog post is nothing on its own, but publish a thousand blog posts over a decade, and it turns into your lifeâs work.
Donât think of your website as a self-promotion machine, think of it as a self-invention machine.
- Be concerned with doing good work . . . and if you can build a good name, eventually that name will be its own currency.â
4. Open Up Your Cabinet of Curiosities.
Donât Be A Hoarder.
âThe problem with hoarding is you end up living off your reserves. Eventually, youâll become stale. If you give away everything you have, you are left with nothing. This forces you to look, to be aware, to replenish. . . . Somehow the more you give away, the more comes back to you.ââPaul Arden
- Your influences are all worth sharing because they clue people in to who you are and what you doâsometimes even more than your own work.
âYouâre only as good as your record collection.ââDJ Spooky
No Guilty Pleasures.
âI donât believe in guilty pleasures. If you fâing like something, like it.ââDave Grohl
All it takes to uncover hidden gems is a clear eye, an open mind, and a willingness to search for inspiration in places other people arenât willing or able to go.
- Donât feel guilty about the pleasure you take in the things you enjoy. Celebrate them. When you share your taste and your influences, have the guts to own all of it.
âDo what you do best and link to the rest.ââJeff Jarvis
5. Tell Good Stories.
Work Doesnât Speak For Itself
âTo fake a photograph, all you have to do is change the caption. To fake a painting, change the attribution.ââErrol Morris
- If you want to be more effective when sharing yourself and your work, you need to become a better storyteller. You need to know what a good story is and how to tell one.
ââThe cat sat on a matâ is not a story. âThe cat sat on the dogâs matâ is a story.ââJohn le CarrĂ©
Structure is Everything
âIn the first act, you get your hero up a tree. The second act, you throw rocks at him. For the third act, you let him down.ââGeorge Abbott
Talk About Yourself at Parties.
âYou got to make your case.ââKanye West
- Tell the truth and tell it with dignity and self-respect.
- If youâre employed, but you donât feel good about your job title, ask yourself why that is. Maybe youâre in the wrong line of work, or maybe youâre not doing the work youâre supposed to be doing.
George Orwell wrote: âAutobiography is only to be trusted when it reveals something disgraceful.â
âWhatever we say, weâre always talking about ourselves.ââAlison Bechdel
6. Teach What You Know.
Share Your Trade Secrets.
âThe impulse to keep to yourself what you have learned is not only shameful, it is destructive. Anything you do not give freely and abundantly becomes lost to you. You open your safe and find ashes.ââAnnie Dillard
- The minute you learn something, turn around and teach it to others. Share your reading list. Point to helpful reference materials. Create some tutorials and post them online. Use pictures, words, and video. Take people step-by-step through part of your process.
- Teaching people doesnât subtract value from what you do, it actually adds to it. When you teach someone how to do your work, you are, in effect, generating more interest in your work. People feel closer to your work because youâre letting them in on what you know.
- When you share your knowledge and your work with others, you receive an education in return.
7. Donât Turn Into Human Spam.
Shut Up and Listen
âWhen people realize theyâre being listened to, they tell you things.ââRichard Ford
- If you want to be a writer, you have to be a reader first.
- If you want fans, you have to be a fan first. If you want to be accepted by a community, you have to first be a good citizen of that community.
- If youâre only pointing to your own stuff online, youâre doing it wrong. You have to be a connector. The writer Blake Butler calls this being an open node.
You Want Hearts, Not Eyeballs.
âWhat you want is to follow and be followed by human beings who care about issues you care about. This thing we make together. This thing is about hearts and minds, not eyeballs.ââJeffrey Zeldman
- If you want followers, be someone worth following.
- If you want to be interesting, you have to be interested.
- Make stuff you love and talk about stuff you love and youâll attract people who love that kind of stuff. Itâs that simple.
The Vampire Test.
âWhatever excites you, go do it. Whatever drains you, stop doing it.ââDerek Sivers
- Vampire Test. Itâs a simple way to know who you should let in and out of your life. If, after hanging out with someone you feel worn out and depleted, that person is a vampire. If, after hanging out with someone you still feel full of energy, that person is not a vampire.
- The Vampire Test works on many things in our lives, not just peopleâyou can apply it to jobs, hobbies, places, etc.
âPart of the act of creating is in discovering your own kind. They are everywhere. But donât look for them in the wrong places.ââHenry Miller
Identify Your Fellow Knuckleballers.
âItâs all about paying attention. Attention is vitality. It connects you with others.ââSusan Sontag
Meet up in Meatspace.
âYou and I will be around a lot longer than Twitter, and nothing substitutes face to face.ââRob Delaney
8. Learn to Take a Punch.
Let âEm Take Their Best Shot.
âI ainât going to give up. Every time you think Iâm one place, Iâm going to show up someplace else. I come pre-hated. Take your best shot.ââCyndi Lauper
- When you put your work out into the world, you have to be ready for the good, the bad, and the ugly. The more people come across your work, the more criticism youâll face.
âThe trick is not caring what EVERYBODY thinks of you and just caring about what the RIGHT people think of you.ââBrian Michael Bendis
Donât Feed The Trolls.
- A troll is a person who isnât interested in improving your work, only provoking you with hateful, aggressive, or upsetting talk. You will gain nothing by engaging with these people. Donât feed them, and theyâll usually go away.
- The worst troll is the one that lives in your head. Itâs the voice that tells you youâre not good enough, that you suck, and that youâll never amount to anything.
âThereâs never a space under paintings in a gallery where someone writes their opinion,â says cartoonist Natalie Dee.
9. Sell Out.
Even The Renaissance Had to Be Funded.
âSellout . . . Iâm not crazy about that word. Weâre all entrepreneurs. To me, I donât care if you own a furniture store or whateverâthe best sign you can put up is sold out.ââBill Withers
- Donât be jealous when the people you like do wellâcelebrate their victory as if itâs your own.
Pass Around The Hat.
âIâd love to sell out completely. Itâs just that nobody has been willing to buy.ââJohn Waters
- When an audience starts gathering for the work that youâre freely putting into the world, you might eventually want to take the leap of turning them into patrons.
- Whether you ask for donations, crowdfund, or sell your products or services, asking for money in return for your work is a leap you want to take only when you feel confident that youâre putting work out into the world that you think is truly worth something. Donât be afraid to charge for your work, but put a price on it that you think is fair.
Keep A Mailing List.
- The model is very simple: They give away great stuff on their sites, they collect emails, and then when they have something remarkable to share or sell, they send an email. Youâd be amazed at how well the model works.
Make More Work For Yourself.
âWe donât make movies to make money, we make money to make more movies.ââWalt Disney
- Yet a life of creativity is all about changeâmoving forward, taking chances, exploring new frontiers. âThe real risk is in not changing,â said saxophonist John Coltrane.
âThere is no misery in art. All art is about saying yes, and all art is about its own making.ââJohn Currin
Pay It Forward.
- When you have success, itâs important to use any dough, clout, or platform youâve acquired to help along the work of the people whoâve helped you get to where you are. Extol your teachers, your mentors, your heroes, your influences, your peers, and your fans. Give them a chance to share their own work. Throw opportunities their way.
âThe biggest problem of success is that the world conspires to stop you doing the thing that you do, because you are successful,â writes author Neil Gaiman.
âAbove all, recognize that if you have had success, you have also had luckâand with luck comes obligation. You owe a debt, and not just to your gods. You owe a debt to the unlucky.ââMichael Lewis
10. Stick Around.
Donât Quit Your Show
âIf you want a happy ending,â actor Orson Welles wrote, âthat depends, of course, on where you stop your story.â
- âIn our business you donât quit,â says comedian Joan Rivers. âYouâre holding on to the ladder. When they cut off your hands, hold on with your elbow. When they cut off your arms, hold on with your teeth. You donât quit because you donât know where the next job is coming from.â
âWork is never finished, only abandoned.ââPaul ValĂ©ry
Chain-Smoke.
- Hereâs how you do it: Instead of taking a break in between projects, waiting for feedback, and worrying about whatâs next, use the end of one project to light up the next one. Just do the work thatâs in front of you, and when itâs finished, ask yourself what you missed, what you couldâve done better, or what you couldnât get to, and jump right into the next project.
âWe work because itâs a chain reaction, each subject leads to the next.ââCharles Eames
Go Away So You Can Come Back.
âThe minute you stop wanting something you get it.ââAndy Warhol
âEvery two or three years, I knock off for a while. That way, Iâm constantly the new girl in the whorehouse.ââRobert Mitchum
Begin Again.
âWhenever Picasso learned how to do something, he abandoned it.ââMilton Glaser
- When you get rid of old material, you push yourself further and come up with something better. When you throw out old work, what youâre really doing is making room for new work.
- Show your work, and when the right people show up, pay close attention to them, because theyâll have a lot to show you.
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