It's not the most talented artist who'll get her work discovered.
Or the most skilled designer.
Or the smartest writer.
Or the best driver.
Or the best public speaker.
Or the most innovative painter.
Or the hardest working employee.
Today, it's the ones who know how to get their work discovered.
The ones who know how to get their ideas to spread.
The ones who don't wait and hope that maybe some day someone might (or might not) find out about them...
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Why write a blog that probably no one is going to read?
Or a book?
Why record a song that probably no one is going to listen to?
Or a video?
Why do art that probably no one is going to ever know about?
Why even do anything that's exhausting, stressful, difficult and is probably not going to work out if you're not getting paid for it?
That's a really good question...
A question I ask myself almost every single day.
And I think that the only answer to this question is that doing all of these exhausting, stressful and difficult things will somehow help you to become a better version of yourself.
And that's something that everybody will benefit from.
Other than that there really is no other reason...
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The first problem is to think that everybody should know what you know.
The second problem is to think that once people know what you know, they will think like you think.
And the third problem is to think that once people think like you think, they will act like you act and do what you do...
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Change only happens organically.
And it won't happen when you force it to happen.
Which is very inconvenient.
Because forcing things, people, organizations or systems to change is very convenient.
Because forcing things to happen instead of nurturing them to happen is always a lot less work.
That's why we tend to force that change.
But it never really works.
It might work temporarily but it usually always falls apart in the long run.
The only way for change to happen is that things, people or systems change organically.
And this is very inconvenient.
Because it needs a hell lot more work.
A lot more work than just forcing change to happen.
Organic change is about educating people and actively participating in that change you seek by creating and building new things and systems instead of just forcing the old ones to change.
Or waiting for them to change.
Or demanding them to change.
Organic change sounds like a lot of work.
Because it is a lot of work.
But it's usually worth it...
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Perfection isn't about being perfect.
Or about avoiding mistakes.
Or failure.
As a matter of fact it's usually about the exact opposite.
Perfection is about making mistakes.
And failing.
And about learning from them.
It's about getting back up again.
About exploration.
And combination.
It's ultimately about reinvention.
Over and over again.
Because that's the only way to get better at it.
At what?
At everything...
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When you work on many different things at the same time you can easily avoid the hard and uncomfortable work and just switch to that other thing you're working on and do the easy and comfortable stuff there.
And it usually works pretty well.
Until you reach that point where you're working on multiple projects at the same time with close to zero real progress where all the easy and comfortable work has already been done and all that's left is the hard and uncomfortable work.
The bad news is this..
We can't avoid the hard and uncomfortable stuff because real progress almost never comes from doing the easy and comfortable stuff.
Real progress almost exclusively comes from doing the hard and uncomfortable stuff.
The stuff we usually try to avoid by switching from one thing to the next.
That's why it's so hard to focus.
Because to focus means that you have to deal with the hard and uncomfortable stuff.
The stuff we usually don't want to deal with.
But doing the hard and uncomfortable stuff is the only way to make real progress.
And to become a real professional...
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Sometimes it's hard to believe in yourself.
Sometimes more.
And sometimes less.
And sometimes it's so hard that you can't possibly see how it's ever going to change again.
Because the truth is that it's just pretty damn hard to believe in yourself.
At times almost impossible.
Alright...
So how do you start believing in yourself (again) then?
Here's a little trick...
Do more of the things you actually really believe in.
This will help you to start believing in yourself (again).
One day and one step at a time.
Don't believe me?
You don't have to.
Just think about the times you felt most confident.
The times you really believed in yourself.
It's likely been those times when you did things you actually really believed in.
So why not do that?
P.S. Doing things you actually really believe in has another advantage: you'll be a lot more motivated and inspired to give it all you got and put in the time, energy and resources it needs to keep getting better at it. And the better you get at it, the more you'll believe in yourself and the things you do...
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You might not have to go first to succeed.
But going first will give you a considerable advantage over everybody else...
The longer it takes until everybody else joins the game, the more time you'd already have spent mastering your craft (or the game).
But as soon as you stop moving you'll stop learning.
And as soon as you stop learning you'll stop moving.
And when you stop moving you can't possibly win.
And that's why the first mover advantage usually doesn't last.
Because people, companies, institutions or governments stop moving.
Don't be one of them...
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That thing they say you should be doing when things go wrong.
When your company crashes and burns.
When your marriage is falling apart.
When you feel like giving up.
When you're about to go broke.
These are all textbook examples.
And textbook examples are just that.
They're textbook examples.
And these textbook examples usually have very little to nothing to do with your situation or the real world out there.
Just like textbook knowledge usually has close to nothing to do with the real world out there.
Try to keep that in mind...
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The real reason why retail stores are dying is because they offer poor customer service.
But the only reason to buy things in retail stores to begin with is to get great customer service.
This is the only reason for retail stores to even exist these days.
So as a result people end up buying things online where they know that they're not paying extra for customer service because they don't expect any customer service.
But it turns out that one of the reasons, if not the biggest reason why platforms such as Amazon are so successful is because of their customer service that exceeds expectations whenever things go wrong.
While retail stores disappoint almost every single time.
Retail stores aren't dying because of platforms such as Amazon.
Retail stores are dying because they get their core business wrong.
Because their core business isn't selling stuff anymore.
It's customer service.
And that's what platforms such as Amazon are getting right.
And most of the retail stores are getting wrong...
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Sometimes less is more.
And sometimes more is better.
But most of the time better is more.
And better is better...
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It's tempting to go back to where you came from when you don't really know where you're going.
But the truth is that you rarely know where you're going when things are changing.
No one does...
And going back to the old will rarely help you to move forward to the new.
It might be tempting.
And going back to the old will almost always feel like you've found your way again.
But only for a while.
Because ultimately all that's going to happen is that you're going to end up where you've started.
Which is rarely the place you wanted to go.
It's tempting.
But it's rarely going to work out...
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It's impossible to know when it's done.
The only thing that's guaranteed is that you'll never feel like it's done.
That it'll never be good enough to put it out there.
Never perfect.
Because it won't be.
And it never will be.
So you better get used to it.
Or else you might never put anything out there.
And if you never put anything out there, you'll never give yourself the chance to get better at it.
At what?
At anything...
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People will tell you how a successful blog should look like.
Or a successful book.
Or a song.
Or a painting.
Or a cake.
Or a whatever.
The good news is that it should look exactly the way you want it to look like.
Or sound like.
Or smell like.
Or taste like.
Sure, you'll miss out on a few clicks.
Or a few bucks.
And you might not go viral.
Or become a one hit wonder.
But guess what...
One hit wonders disappear.
Just like clicks disappear as soon as someone else comes along who's better at engineering click-worthy stuff.
But something that's unique, something that looks like, reads like and sounds just like you will never disappear.
Unless you disappear...
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Is not your boss.
Or your clients.
Or your customers.
Or your investors.
It's you...
Because none of the above is responsible for the big decisions in your life.
The good ones or the poor ones.
The ones you make and the ones you don't make.
Just like none of the above is responsible for poor time management.
Or for procrastination.
Or for the things going wrong.
You are.
You always are...
That's why you are your worst boss.
Or your best boss.
It's up to you.
It always is...
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... is that they usually aren't posted anywhere.
Because the people who work on interesting projects usually don't even have the time to write down those job descriptions and let alone post them somewhere.
Most of the time those people don't even know what or who they're looking for.
Here's the thing...
Most of the the interesting jobs don't even exist, yet.
That job that perfectly fits your skills, your interests and the things you love doing just doesn't exist.
So what can you do?
You've gotta create it...
So how do you create it?
Well, the first step is to stop waiting for that perfect job to be posted somewhere.
Because it probably won't.
And then the second step is about showing the people in charge what you bring to the table.
So how do you do that?
By creating value.
Upfront.
For free.
For them.
Without them even asking.
So will it work?
Of course not.
But sometimes it will...
Now that sounds hard.
And like a lot of work.
Will it even be worth all the effort?
I don't know.
Will it be worth it to work on something at the intersection of your skills, your interests and the things you love doing?
You tell me...
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The reason we treat a job like a job is because it is a job.
A job where we have to show up each and every day.
Because if we don't, then we'd just lose that job.
And the same applies to creativity.
It's your job to show up each and every day.
Even, no especially when you don't feel like it.
Because if you don't, then you'd just lose it.
It's as simple as that...
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No matter what you do.
If you work a job, then your boss will be your boss.
If you're a freelancer, then your clients will be your boss.
If your an entrepreneur, then your customers and investors will be your boss.
You'll always have a boss.
No matter what you do.
And your boss might actually be a much nicer boss than your clients, your customers or your investors.
After all, your boss usually doesn't pay you with her own money, can't fire you right away because of contracts and unions, you can always outsource responsibility to someone else and you can hide under dozens of layers of corporatism.
On the other hand your clients, your customers and your investors usually pay you with their own money, can fire you whenever they want to and it's pretty much impossible for you to outsource responsibility to someone else or to hide under the dozens of layers of corporatism.
And that's a pretty big difference.
A difference worth remembering...
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It's very likely that it won't...
That thing you're currently working on probably won't.
That book you're currently writing probably won't.
Just like that song you're currently recording probably won't.
Or that video.
Or that painting.
Or that business.
It's very likely that none of the things you're working on will ever change the world.
And that's ok.
Because doing things that no one told you to do will change the way you see the world, the people around you and ultimately how you see yourself.
And who knows...
If you stick around long enough and don't just give up after those first few books, those first few albums, those first few exhibitions and those first few businesses you might maybe even end up changing more than yourself.
But that's still a long way to go.
Today is a good day to start walking...
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Most of the stuff we really want to be doing is really hard.
That's why we usually end up doing the easy stuff first, the stuff we don't really want to be doing.
Because we think that we have enough time and can do the hard stuff once we've successfully done the easy stuff.
But the problem is that there's no easy stuff.
All that's going to happen is that the easy stuff will turn out to be really hard.
So you'll be stuck doing things you don't really want to be doing, you'll be stuck doing the seemingly easy stuff that almost always turns out to be a lot harder than you initially thought.
So don't do the easy stuff first.
Don't do the stuff you don't really want to be doing first.
Because you might never be able to get to the the hard stuff.
The stuff you really wanted to do.
And instead just do the hard stuff first.
Because if the hard stuff doesn't work out you can still do the easy stuff.
But if the easy stuff doesn't work out you might just have wasted a lot of time doing things you never really wanted to do...
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