- Let Your Hands GoBack in college, my boxing coach would remind us every day of the most important thing we needed to do as fighters.

It didn’t matter if it was heavy bag practice, sparring, or between rounds at an actual match, he would say over and over again:

Let your hands go.

The instructions were simple enough – throw more punches.

I didn’t really think much about it because I always threw as many punches as I could. I’d punch until I was exhausted.

That’s what letting my hands go was all about, right?

During my fourth year of boxing it finally clicked.

I was in a sparring match.  3rd and final round.  45 seconds on the clock.  I got my opponent in a corner.  I took a broad stance and started throwing.  But something was different.

I was in control of my breathing and my strikes landed exactly where I wanted them to land.

I was in control of the rhythm and pace of the fight and threw combination after combination.

I was in control of the speed and strength of my blows - my opponent couldn’t do anything but cover up.

The bell rang.  The sparring match ended.

For 45 seconds, I pressed the offensive without once worrying about my defensive posture.  For 45 seconds, I controlled the fight and my opponent.  For 45 seconds, I let my hands go.

The Path to Mastery

It took me 4 years to let my hands go.

4 years, not because I didn’t understand, but because I wasn’t ready.

I wasn’t ready because I was too nervous to loosen up and fight calmly; I wasn’t ready because I was too scared to truly press the offense; I wasn’t ready because I focused on avoiding counter punches instead of how I could inflict damage.

But most of all, I wasn’t ready because I hadn’t reached the level of mastery I needed to take heed of his advice.

It took me 4 years to finally appreciate the advice given to me years before, but, just as importantly, it took me 4 years to actually execute the advice properly.

I tried in the past to let my hands go – throw as many punches as I could to take control of the fight, but it just didn’t work the way it was supposed to.

That’s the funny thing about mastery – it takes years to figure out the subtlety of the simplest things.

Let Your Hands Go

That day I learned something important: when you really let your hands go, there’s nothing your opponent can do.

If he tries to counter, he’ll leave himself exposed to your flurry of strikes.  If he tries to pivot, you can adjust your own position and keep pressing.  If he slips out of the corner, you can back off and get ready to let your hands go again.

They say the best defense is a good offense – that’s what letting your hands go is all about.

And you need to do the same with your creative project.

Are you a writer?

Let your hands go.

Write more.

Write every day.  Write without inhibition, without worrying what others will think, without concern for the crowd’s reaction.  Just write.  And when you write, let others read.

Don’t wait to get chosen by a big publishing house.  Let your hands go – publish yourself.

Are you an entrepreneur?

Let your hands go.

Create a product to sell – and start selling it!

If the first 100 don’t buy, try the next 100.  If no one buys, try a different angle, a different pitch, a different unique selling proposition.  Keep testing and experimenting.  Entrepreneurship by its nature is uncertain.  It’s a path fraught with danger, pitfalls, and possible death (of your product).

People will wonder why you don’t just get a respectable job with a predictable income, like a warehouse supervisor at the robot factory.  Let your hands go – take your own path.

Are you waiting on the sideline?

Let your hands go.

Start SOMETHING.

There are too many broken things in the world that need fixing.  Falling in line, clocking in and clocking out, doing what you’re told – life’s too short and you’re too clever to waste your days this way.  Do what matters to you.  Don’t worry about the group you just left on the sideline, their job is to cheer (and jeer) accordingly.

Your job is to do the work.  Let your hands go - start today.

Be the Disrupter

It might be presumptuous of me to say, but it’s becoming more and more clear to me the type of readers who read and subscribe to my blog; you guys are the instigators of the world.  You’re the map drawers, the path choosers and the disrupters of the world.

I’ve already highlighted a few of you – this barely scratches the surface of the hundreds of people who I’ve had the opportunity to correspond with directly, and the thousands of others who are doing amazing things but haven’t reached out to me (yet, I hope).

My point is this: you’re not alone in this fight.

While everyone’s struggles are unique and every path is different, we all share the commonality of the creative war itself.  We’re all in the trenches together - it’s just that the trenches spread for thousands of miles and there’s a lot of dead space.

Don’t lose heart.

Keep blazing trails, keep doing the hard, creative work, and keep disrupting the standards set by the average majority.

It’s not easy, but it’s important.

And remember, when things get tough...

Let your hands go and be the disrupter this world needs.

 


Photo credit: clarita from morguefile.com

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On the Pain of Creative Work

Photo credit: click from morguefile.com

Creative work is hard as hell.

If you’re a writer, entrepreneur, or anyone else challenging and pushing boundaries (read: instigator), you know what I’m talking about.

In fact, creative work is probably the hardest work there is – something only those bold enough to create can appreciate.

But what makes creative work so hard?

1.  Creative work is uncertain

Doing creative work means we can fail at any point.

All the hard work we do this week, this month or this year could end up being for nothing.  No reward.  No payout.  No bonus.

In the beginning, most bootstrappers work 80 hour weeks and make sweat shop wages.  To make matters worse, the majority of startups fail.  And for the aspiring writer?  The landscape is even bleaker...

2.  Creative work is exhausting

Creative work requires us to be on point every hour of every day.

If we’re not doing our best work, if we’re not going as hard as we can, if we’re not constantly pushing the boundaries, then we’re at risk of being overshadowed by someone who’s willing to hustle harder.  The fear is this: any moment we fail to capitalize on is a moment that could have been our tipping point – the thing that allows us to break out of obscurity.

Worse yet, the only thing more exhausting than putting our mind, body and soul into a project, day after day, is the anxiety we experience from the thought of wasting time or losing ground...

3.  Creative work is lonely

For most of us, creating something from scratch requires long periods of time devoted to working in solitude.

This requires a great deal of self-imposed isolation – something that inevitably becomes lonely over a period of time.  This isolation is made even more painful when the few times we do interact with other people they don’t “get” what we’re doing.

The only thing lonelier than working in isolation is working beside people who don’t get what you’re doing.

Finding the Strength to Continue

Face it, if you do creative work, at some point the uncertainty, exhaustion and loneliness will make you want to quit.

I can’t tell you how many times a week (a day?) I want to throw in the towel and walk away.

This is the inner creative war we each have to fight if we want to do great work.

It’s at times like this, when things get darkest, you need to remember what's important.

Remember...

 

 

 

 

 

 

But most of all, remember this:

The rest of the world probably won’t get why you do what you do.

But you didn't do it for them, did you?

Do the work.  Do YOUR work.  And do it for the happy few who want what you create.

Serve those people.

Ignore everyone else.

They're not worth a second of your time anyway.

A Caveat

Creative work is hard...

But here's the thing: life is hard.

Any course of action you choose in life will be hard - hard because you chose to enter the trenches, fight the creative fight, and do work that matters, or hard because you chose to avoid the trenches, insolate yourself from challenging, impactful work, and accept what life throws at you.

I'm sorry, but there's no happy medium, no painless compromise.

These are the only two options.

So what will you choose?

Call me a ruffian, but I'll choose the former.

I hope you do the same.


New to the blog?  Join the Resistance and join me and an army of creative ruffians (artists, entrepreneurs and all around instigators) doing important work.  Never fight along - join the Resistance.

Great Work (part 3 of 3)

Photo credit: DTL from morguefile.com

This is the final post in a short series on great work.

To be honest, I originally wrote a short book’s worth of content on this topic.

But right before I hit publish, I decided to scrap everything and get to the heart of what I wanted to say: what great work means at the most fundamental level.

Great work is all about impact. 

And sometimes, the best way to make an impact is with fewer words.

In the follow up post, I wanted to dive deeper into this concept of impact – why do some things impact us so powerfully and others don’t? 

Love it or hate it, the messages, people, and things we remember are those that draw the line, that take a stand, that never compromise.

Easily said. 

Not easily done.

In this final post in the series, I want to talk about a common misunderstanding of great work – the biggest mistake we make in life, actually – and leave you with a final thought on how to create your own great work – this instant if you want.

But first, the misunderstanding…

The Biggest Mistake We Make…

Is confusing doing great work with getting RECOGNIZED for the great work we do.

These are not the same.

When we set out to do great work, we put our heads down and create.  Every now and then we share what we produce: 99% creation, 1% selling.

When we set out to get recognized, we stop creating and start plugging: 1% creation, 99% selling.

As long as we’re doing great work (truly great work), there’s no time to worry about recognition.  It may come, it may not.  That’s not for you to decide, nor for your great work to dictate.

But isn’t there some way to bridge the gap?  Isn’t it possible to create great work that WILL get recognized?  Surely, there must be a secret formula out there...

There isn’t one.

There is no 100% guaranteed 10-step model for creating great work that gets recognized.  It doesn’t exist.

And anyone who says otherwise is probably selling you something.

The truth is there is no secret formula because it's not a secret and you already know the formula.  You’ve known it your entire life, in fact.

It’s just hard to admit you know the formula because once you do it changes everything.

Owning Action / Reaction

So why isn’t it possible to guarantee your work will be recognized?

Simple:

You don’t own the reaction to your work. 

You can’t control the crowd’s opinion.  You can’t dictate the feedback of the audience.  You can’t determine the response of the client.

These aren’t for you to control – and trying to force it is either malicious or naïve.  In either case, it detracts from your great work.

The reaction shouldn’t concern you because it doesn’t concern you.

You don’t own the reaction to you work, but you do own something much more important:

You own the actions that create your work.

You control the words you put down on paper; you dictate the effort you put into your art; you determine the love, generosity and humility with which you embrace each day and every person you meet.

Your actions are for you to control.

And your actions SHOULD concern you.

The Best Words

In all these empty plans / The ink stains on my hands.

And everyone saves / The best words for the grave.

Are these weary morning tones / I’ll probably save mine too.

[The Airborne Toxic Event]

In every minute of every day is the opportunity to put your mind, body and spirit into doing something worthwhile.

Every action is an opportunity to do something bold.

In every passing moment is the opportunity to change everything.

Want to do great work?

Serve the people closest to you, regardless of their rank, title or following.  Put it all on the line for those who need you most, not those you think you need to impress.  Speak to those who want to hear from you – ignore the rest.

This is generosity. It doesn’t scale.  And it's what really counts, regardless of applause.

The recognition you think you want?  It doesn’t matter nearly as much.

Stop saving your best words.

Spend them today on the people who count.


Would love to hear your thoughts...leave a comment below!

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Just One Person

In my previous post, I wrote about great work.

Great work is impactful work – the kind that resonates with a person (or a million people) for years to follow.

The sole criteria for determining great work is impact, and that’s specifically and uniquely determined by the person or people experiencing the work.

If you impact just one person, you’ve created great work.

So how do we impact just one person?

Start with Why

In my article on bootstrapping a business, my #2 tip was this: know your why.

But this isn’t a tip just for bootstrappers, it’s for everyone in life who wants to make an impact.

Why do you do what you do?

Why do you create?

Why do you sweat, bleed and suffer everyday over your work?

These are the questions we, the audience, the readers, the experiencers of your work care about.  We don’t care what your product or service does until we know why you’re doing it.

“People don’t buy what you do – they buy why you do it.” [Simon Sinek]

Think about it: no one wants to be swindled. 

As the consumer, the first thought we have when we encounter another person is if he or she is the real deal, if what they’re offering is legitimate and authentic.

The only way to assuage our fears is by telling us your why.

When we know your why, we’re on board.

If your why is nonexistent or superficial or doesn’t resonate with us, we move on to the next project.

And in a noisy world full of projects, moving onto something other than what’s being offered is very, very easy.

Live Your Why

This next step is simple:

Bob Ross 9464216 1 402 - Never Compromise
>> This guy made happy art.

Once you know your why, live your why.

If you create art to make people happy, make your happy art every day.

If you take care of those who can’t take care of themselves, take care of them every day.

If you build products that change people’s lives, build life changing products every day.

You might be thinking this is so simple it’s not even worth mentioning.

But living your why cuts both ways...

Never Compromise

When you live your why, you can’t cut corners anymore:

You can’t cut ingredients to increase margins. 

You can’t cut out the personal interaction to scale your company. 

You can’t cut effort to take on more projects at one time.

In the movie Watchmen, the upstanding, idealistic Rorschach is offered a chance to save himself but compromise his integrity in the process.

Rorschach’s response:

“Never compromise.  Not even in the fact of Armageddon.” [Watchmen]

Maybe we're not superheroes and life's not a movie, but the principle applies:

If you want to do great work, if you want to make an impact, then you need to know and live your why.

And that means never compromising – not even in the face of Armageddon.

Simple…not easy.

Every day, hundreds of thousands of blogs are started, thousands of books are published, and hundreds of businesses are created.

The majority don't last.

So what separates those that last from those that fail?

The ones that succeed - do they do something different?

Is there a common pattern, strategy or framework that successful projects use?  And if so, can we model it and use it in our own projects?

These are the questions I've been asking myself recently as I dive headlong into my new publishing startup. The essential question is this:

How can I avoid the pitfalls of unsuccessful startups and tap into the magic of the successful ones?

Creating Success

What I've compiled here are the fundamental dos and don'ts for bootstrapping a business from scratch.

All of these lessons I learned from the masters of the trade (Michael Masterson, Eric Ries, Seth Godin, Chris Anderson, and Nassim Taleb among others) and applied in my own projects.

What you see here is the distilled wisdom of dozens of heavyweights in the business world, as well as the knowledge I've learned from hundreds of books, courses and personal interactions, whittled down into a no-fluff, practical resource you can apply to your own project.

Most of this advice applies to bootstrappers and creative entrepreneurs - but it also applies to the artist, designer and leader.

The lessons included here are universal and impact all of us who build things from the ground up with our bare hands.

So if that applies to you, definitely bookmark this page for future reading.

Good luck, and enjoy:

2 Things You Should Avoid At All Costs:

What not to do with your business is important: the majority of failures are a result of putting time and energy into the wrong things, and if we know what these things are, we can purposefully avoid them.

The 2 biggest don’ts of creating success in business and life are just that – things you should definitely, at all costs, avoid:

1.  Avoid Re-routingre route to what

Re-routing is spending all your time building a solution…to the wrong problem.

This is one of the most common mistakes beginner-level entrepreneurs make.  But it’s not just a beginner-level mistake – plenty of pro’s make the same mistake when they branch out into a new sector, industry, or genre.

Anytime we try something for the first time, we're liable to miss the mark.

That's why it's essential we constantly reevaluate our position, direction and goals (more on that below).

The Lesson: know what problem you’re fixing and why.

2.  Avoid The John Carter Mistake

John Carter was an epic failure in the box office.

Even when things weren't looking good on set or in test groups, the producers continued to pump cash into the project. By the time they shipped, they needed to make close to $400 million to make money on the project.

With every dollar they pumped into the project, the more unlikely their chance of success.

The Lesson: don’t pump money, time and resources into a project that isn’t working.  A sinking ship is a sinking ship - better to cut losses and find a new way to be successful than drown in pride.

9 Ways to Increase Your Chances of Success (in business and life):

It's essential you avoid the two pitfalls above.

Simply put, if you spend your time re-routing or get sucked into the John Carter Mistake, there's literally no way your startup will make it.

But let's say you can and do avoid these two major pitfalls...then what?

What CAN you do to actively improve your chances of success.*

*Note: success is relative and subjective.  In this case, I’m defining success as creating something people want to (and will) pay money for without your business going under (i.e. making profit so you can grow your business).

The following is a list of the 9 best ways you can increase your chances of success, both in business and in life:

1.  Challenge Everything

Just because things are the way they are doesn't mean they should be that way.

No matter what industry of business, genre of art, or category of book, there is always a way to improve the existing paradigm.

There are better systems, better solutions, and better products waiting to be created.  The question is: are you willing to create them?

"Never accept the status quo – there is always a better way."  - tweet this

Ask yourself:

Is there a way this product or this service can be made better?

Why is this the way it is?  Can it be improved?

Where is their a problem and how can I fix it?  What are the pain points of others?  How do I help them?

Is there something missing that I can fill?

This philosophy (and it is just that - a philosophy for living life) of challenging everything includes challenging your own assumptions and beliefs.

Be relentless. 

Constantly test your assumptions and, if need be, change your beliefs - they might just be holding you back.

2.  Know Your "Why"

Why are you doing what you’re doing?

Why do you want to create this piece of art?

Why do you want to build this business?

Knowing why you do what you do is ESSENTIAL.  At the end of the day, your why is what determines your success because it directly feeds your solution (your what) and your execution (your how).

Why, how, what - this is what Simon Sinek describes as the "Golden Circle" - check out his short, powerful video below on starting with why.

"People don't buy what you do - they buy why you do it." Simon Sinek

If you aren't sure of your why, but you’re building something anyway, you’re probably rerouting.

Know your why - and then start with why.

3.  Hypothesize

No project should start without a hypothesis.

In The Lean Startup, Eric Ries explains businesses through the lens of a scientific experiment – in other words: testable, measurable, and reproducible.

Ries’ startup philosophy revolves around creating a hypothesis for your product or service – if we do X, then Y will happen.

“the goal of a startup is to figure out the right thing to build – the thing customers want and will pay for – as quickly as possible.” The Lean Startup

For example: if I add an email subscription box to the end of every blog post, I will increase my subscription rate by 7%.

Or, if I decrease the price of my product by 5%, gross revenue will increase by 10%.

The point isn't to know if it will work – the point is to have an idea, create a hypothesis for the idea, and then test it.

If it fails, tweak it and try again (email subscription boxes at the top of the blog post, or in the sidebar, or add a popup box to your site, etc.).

Constantly test.  Constantly measure.  Constantly learn.

And always adapt and grow.

4.  Be Willing to Change Strategies

When we hypothesize, we create a question that can be tested and proven right or wrong.

If the solution doesn’t work for a particular product or service, tweak the hypothesis and try again.  This is changing tactics – the small scale engagements we make with customers or inside our business (i.e. changes to how we write our sales copy; changes to visual presentation, etc).

Changes in tactics don’t change the fundamental problem you’re trying to solve – changes in tactics simply mean a shift in how we approach the problem.

However, at some point, we might find that nothing is working for our original hypothesis.  At this point, it’s time to change strategy - or, in Lean Startup terms, pivot.

"Life is too short to build something nobody wants." - Ash Maurya

Below is a video by Ash Maurya, author of Lean Running, who explains how to create products efficiently and effectively, why most startups fail, and how you can avoid making the same mistake:

If you found the video useful, make sure to check out Maurya's amazing, free lean canvas tool here.  It will help you map out an effective, simple business plan.

If you have a hard time filling it out, it probably means you're missing a key piece of the puzzle for your own business.  This will help you avoid creating a product that no one wants.

Pivoting means changing your business or business model.

This could mean changing from a "freemium" model (free content to bring people in; sell them paid premium content later on) to a premium, upfront monthly subscription model; from a company that produces and sells information products, to a company that builds software solutions.

Pivoting is sometimes drastic. 

It can be scary and it’s never easy (it challenges our pride because it means admitting our original ideas were wrong).

But if you know your why, pivoting becomes a lot more bearable.

5.  Expose Yourself to Positive Black Swans

The Black Swan is a term coined by Nassim Taleb in his groundbreaking book of the same name, which focuses on probability, randomness and human rationality.

A Black Swan refers to an event that is unpredictable, but has massive impact in our lives.

The internet, for example, was a positive Black Swan event; now we are a few keystrokes away from almost anybody in the world, increasing connection and freedom throughout the world (this change was unpredictable and completely changed the economic landscape of the 90's and beyond).

The terrorist attacks on 9/11 were a negative Black Swan event - the ramifications of which we still experience every time we have to take our shoes off at the airport.

So while we can’t predict when or what form a Black Swan will take, we can focus on exposing our business and our life to positive Black Swan events (and, likewise, protect against negative Black Swans).  A few ways to do this:

Here's a lesson on Black Swans from the movie Grinders with Matt Damon.  It's 30 seconds long - it sums up why playing it safe isn't the way to live life.  Sometimes, you have to take a chance:

Taleb recently published a new book called Anti-Fragility - which explains in more depth all the things that gain from disorder.  A must read for all aspiring entrepreneurs looking to make a dramatic impact (and limit their downside exposure).

6.  Aim Small, Miss Small

In the movie The Patriot, Mel Gibson’s character teaches his son how to shoot.

His advice – aim small, miss small.

Once you know your "why" you should focus on the most specific problem you can fix (every product or service fixes a problem).

The smaller, as in, more particular and precise the problem, the better your chances of hitting your mark (because you know exactly what you’re aiming for).

Shooting from the hip (i.e. seeing what will stick) is usually not the best solution to anything.

Be Specific.

Be precise.

Focused on one problem and one problem only to start – and be relentless about defining that problem and your solution.

7.  Start Local

You do not need a website, a team of coders, or a dozen virtual assistants to get your business off the ground.

You do not need angel investors, the Shark Tank or Donald Trump to pick you.

There is a way to test and validate every product before going full scale, and guess what?  You can usually do this by yourself.

Your job is to figure out how to test your solution in the smallest way possible.

Below is a video by Neville Medhora, a guy who does a crazy amount of business testing (from drop shipping companies and one and one consultation services, to eCourses and digital products).

If this doesn't open your mind to what's possible, I don't know what will (warning: some swearing is involved):

 

Before you start your LLC, lock down the manufacturing and distribution facilities, and enlist a team of salespeople, maybe it would be more effective for you to create the first product and hustle it by yourself.

Can you sell it on Craigslist? 

Can you sell it on Ebay or Etsy? 

Can you set up a stand outside an event and sell it to real people?

The point is this: you must test and VALIDATE before you start scaling.

Sorry, but if it doesn't work on a small scale, it won’t work on a massive scale (Facebook started out on a single campus, McDonalds on one street corner, and Apple with one product).

8.  Work ON Your Business...

Don’t work in it.

Working in your business is essential, but only in the beginning.

It’s necessary to work inside your business at the start; you need to know how it works so you can develop and refine your processes and systems.  But once you have the systems in place, and a profitable product or service, start hiring others to do your job.

Your goal should be to create a  profitable, organized and systematized business so you can scale.

You really shouldn't be hiring people until you're profitable (there are exceptions to the rule - I'm addressing solopreneurs/bootstrappers in particular here).

Working on your business and not in it is a concept heavily analyzed in The E-Myth Revisited, which explains the success of any startup requires the ability to create systems and processes in order to make your business turnkey.

Here's a video all about creating systems for your business from the author himself:

 

Creating a business is the only way to attain actual freedom through your creative work.  As long as you're an employee or self-employed (i.e. a freelancer), you're at the beck and call of others.

Freelancing requires you to be on the clock (it might be fun, but you're still tied down).

If you want to create something that improves your quality of life, that increases your flexibility and freedom, be an entrepreneur -  focus on creating a business, one that can grow and scale, even if you’re not there.

This means working on your business and not in it.

9.  Never, Never, Never Quit.

Yes, you might have to forget the project you’re working on, or change your tactics, or even pivot your strategy - but don’t quit on creating.

Never stop doing what you love because it doesn't work on the first try – it rarely if ever will.

"If I fail more than you do, I win." - Seth Godin

Self-determination and freedom are not easily won - it’s a struggle and you will take some hits.

That’s why so many quit or never try to begin with.

But not you.

Have faith, act courageously and keep fighting.

The Moral of the Story

Is to constantly push your own abilities; to learn and grow and improve; to seek out challenges and test yourself.

You don't have to create your empire this weekend - and, in fact, you couldn't even if you wanted to.

But if you start today, in the smallest way possible (just one word on a piece of paper; just one call to a prospect; just one sketch of your design), you begin the process of creating something brilliant.

And in this singular act, no matter how small, you begin building your empire.

So I guess the underlying moral of the story is this:

Never stop creating. Start today.

If you like what you've read and need help starting, finishing and shipping your project, here are a few ways I can help:

1 - Join the Resistance by subscribing to our newsletter here (it's free)

2 - Check out a book I wrote called 2 Days With Seth Godin (PDF version) or on Amazon Kindle that can help you get your book, business, or blog unstuck.

3 - Check out the Cache where I have books, courses, and more - many that are "Pay What You Want" (your contributions help me continue to write, produce, and publish)

The Comforting MythChoosing Your Path

Coming up with a brilliant, life-altering idea is what matters.

If you could only come up with that one perfect idea…

It could re-energize you to tackle your project, inspire you to go after your audacious goal, and light your path to success, happiness and contentment.

Of course, this is a myth.

The moment we stop to really think about it, it’s clearly irrational – one idea by itself never changes anything.  But we believe it anyway, because as long as we believe it and we haven’t had that spark, that realization, that epiphany, we can justify our current situation and continue to go with the flow.

By waiting for something to happen to us, we abdicate responsibility over our lives and we continue down the path set by others. 

For many (for the majority) this is comforting.

So if the life-altering idea is a myth, what is true?

The Brutal Truth

Action.

Action is what matters.

Small action taken daily changes everything.  Not all at once, of course, but gradually over time.

So the year after you changed your diet, you’re 20lbs lighter – or 20lbs heavier because you ditched the diet and continued down the same path you were on.

Or your commitment to blogging created enough content for you to publish your first book – or it didn’t because you scrapped the writing altogether because no one was paying attention.

Or you finally founded your own company and you’re proud to say you draw your own map – or you have no company because you never actually worked up the courage to quit your comfortable, inoffensive job.

Ideas?  They’re a dime a dozen.

A small action today?  It’s worth everything.

The Choice

Each of us has a choice - many choices, actually, every day of our lives.

And every day, every hour, every minute, is the chance to choose - and, therefore, the chance to change.

You can:

1.     Continue down the path you’re on and wait for an idea…

Who knows, maybe it will come.

Maybe the idea you’re hoping will strike a cord and call you to action will hit you over the head if you wait long enough.  Worst case scenario, you continue meandering on your current path, the one set and well trodden by others.

Or…

2.     Take action today…

In a second, literally, you can change everything. 

This change is a declaration made through action.  Even the smallest action changes the status quo – at least your status quo, at this moment, which is the first step toward creating lasting, large-scale change.

This is the harder path, of course - no reason to sugar coat it. 

You’re walking down your current path for a reason; switching paths or turning around and walking the opposite way means having to put effort into retracing your steps - and sometimes that feels like a waste.  When we turn around, even if it’s for the right reason, it still feels as if we’re losing progress.

But if you’ve been making progress down a path you don’t care for, toward an end you don’t want, turning around is actually the only way to truly make any progress at all.

If you are on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road; and in that case the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive man. [C.S. Lewis]

In one moment, in one choice, in one action, you can turn it all around.

The question is: will you?

Creating Your CharacterI have an acquaintance I speak with on occasion.

I’ve known this guy for a long time.  Since I’ve known him, he’s always complained to me about his job: he hates it.

His hate for his job isn’t for lack of pay or perks – they are way above average.  The dislike is for the structure of the organization that employs him and the tedious, unchallenging and often pointless work he feels he is doing.

He’s remarked on more than one occasion that a high-school freshman could do his job (90% of his day job is creating PowerPoint slides).

This is beside the point though.

You see, for as long as I’ve known him, he has intended to quit his job and move onto something better (something exciting and challenging).

At least this is what he said he wanted.

You see, the time came when he was finally allowed to leave (when he had finished his initial contract period with his employer), but he didn’t leave.  Instead, he signed another contract with his employer for an indefinite period of time (one that will most certainly last for another 2+ years).

Slightly confused, I asked him why.

Him: “Because there’s nothing else that I really want to do.  I figure I’ll just ride it out and see where it takes me.”

Me: “But I thought you hated your job?”

Him: “Yeah, it’s bad, but it’s not that bad.   I don’t really do anything.  I show up at 9, leave at 3 or 4, and I take a 2 hour lunch.  You can’t beat it.  If it gets really bad, I’ll quit and become a teacher.”

The conversation continued on for a bit, but not into any meaningful territory.  At the end of the conversation, we parted ways, and, for one reason or another, I remembered a quote by Aristotle:

Moral excellence comes about as a result of habit. We become just by doing just acts, temperate by doing temperate acts, brave by doing brave acts.”

What Aristotle is saying is this: we pick and choose and build our character – it is not naturally ingrained in us at birth.

The brave man is made so through brave actions; the just woman is made so through just actions.  Neither one was born this way – they consciously built themselves this way.

This is a powerful truth, one that should give hope to all who strive valiantly, who dare boldly, and who struggle to be better, day in and day out: as long as you never quit, you will most certainly become that which you practice consistently.

But this is also a wake-up call: if we can become virtuous from acts of virtue, then the opposite is true.

We become cowards through acts of cowardice; lazy through acts of laziness; weak through lack of action.

You’ve probably heard the idiom: actions speak louder than words.

They’re also a testament to our character.

What do your actions say about you?

 

Starting a Project is Thrilling Starting

There’s something about that moment – the moment we finally write our ideas on paper – that’s both invigorating and scary.

We move from day-dreaming to actualizing and everything seems at once entirely possible and wholly reachable.

The goals we set not only excite us by their grandeur, but by the thought of actually reaching them.

The moment you write your ideas on paper and form coherent objectives (clear, precise goals), a shift occurs.  This shift brings about two important realizations:

  1. You’ve been ready to start this entire time
  2. Your future circumstances are entirely in your hands

And knowing these two things makes everything in this life possible.

The question is: what will you create?

 

 

ObstaclesPlus

When starting a new project, you deal with a lot of obstacles.

The web design you outsourced might not function how you wanted, or the first shipment of products come in completely the wrong color or size, or your plans for a successful launch don’t pan out the way you hoped they would…

All of these are difficult to deal with.

They hurt, they're painful, and they disappoint us.

But they won’t break you.

What Can Break You

Negative self-talk propaganda, on the other hand, just might.

Negative self-talk propaganda will use these events to make you question yourself, your project, and your resolve.  Negative self-talk propaganda will try to break you were you are weakest: from the inside.

The following are 8 fears we all experience on the road to creating something worthwhile...

1. Fear of Failure

We’re all scared of not living up to our own expectations; we’re even more terrified by not living up to the expectations of others.

So, we rationalize: If we don’t start, we can’t fail.

The simple solution is to not begin your project and to avoid doing the difficult, creative work of building a business, brand or organization…of course, if that’s your choice, nothing happens.

The possibility of failure is a good thing – it means you’re doing something that matters, something original, something rebellious to the robot factory.

If you’re scared it might not work, good – you’re on the right track.

2. Fear of Shame

Worse than the idea of not succeeding is the idea of friends and strangers belittling us for what we’re trying; that because we don’t live up to expectations, we embarrass those with whom we associate (and bring shame on ourselves).

Shame is the greatest weapon of the Enemy and will break you faster than anything else.

Shame is entirely fabricated in our minds.  It has no power but what we give it, no legitimacy but what we allow it.

Keep doing the work.

3. Fear of Being a Phony

Let’s be honest – anyone trying something new feels like a phony.  If you don’t, you’re probably doing something you already know how to do, which means you’re not creating anything new.

Feeling like a phony is a good thing; when you have these thoughts, recognize them as the compass they are – pointing you in the right direction (toward something new).

Keep going.

4. Fear of Pain

Creating something from scratch is painful.

It’s never easy.

Sure, there will be moments when we’re in flow and things just click – and, often, the process of creating is a lot of fun – but those are the highlights.

The pain begins when the flow ends and you’re left without inspiration or motivation, and no guarantee it will work.  That’s when commitment comes in – if you’re committed, you understand this is part of the process, and you keep creating, no matter how hard it becomes.

Before you start, commit – and recommit every day to doing the important work.

5. Fear of Being Hated

This ties into the threat of shame – every person wants some form of validation and the idea of being hated unanimously terrifies us.

Of course, no one is hated unanimously; there will always be someone who loves what you do and appreciates how you do it.

The fear of being hated is entirely irrational; laugh at it when you start your work today.

6. Fear of Being Ignored

Let’s face it, being ignored is more likely what will happen with your project.  There are too many choices, too many options, and a limited amount of time for people to make these choices.  You’re stuff, whatever it is, competes with the noise of the world.

Attention and trust takes time.  So if your stuff is good, stay gritty.  If it’s not good, make it great…and then get gritty.

Note: being ignored is one of the greatest assets of the “newbie.”

If you start with peoples trust and attention, you’ll be compelled to keep that trust and attention.  Usually, this involves doing whatever created the trust and attention in the first place.

The result?  Sameness.

But the “newbie” – he has no fear of doing what’s worked, because nothings worked yet.  The “newbie” is really another name for the underdog - the insurgent.  The actions of the underdog challenge the status quo; the actions of the insurgent create revolutions.

Don’t worry about being ignored – it’s more likely you'll create a revolution (if your stuff is good enough).

7. Fear of Loneliness

Creating involves some level of introversion.  If what we’re doing is brilliant and personal, we need to wrestle with ideas internally.  And dealing with things alone is no joke.

It’s difficult to fight a battle by yourself.

Don’t cut yourself off from external help.  Don’t let the lonely abyss of creation overwhelm you.  The solution is usually just a friendly talk away, or knowing others are in the trenches with you, willing to help you through your difficult times.

Talking out a problem with someone you trust is one of the surest ways to get unstuck.  Use this technique freely; use it often.

8. Fear of Rejection

And after all the pain you’ve gone through, “they” might reject you.

If you expect your next project to be the breakthrough moment – the thing that changes everything so you no longer have to face rejection - I have bad news: this never happens.

The most popular, famous, successful businesses still face rejection.  Sure, once you’ve hit a tipping point of fans and support, rejection is less likely because the majority will always mimic the majority (a self-perpetuating cycle), but even great brands, bands, and people fade away if all they do is perpetuate the current cycle.

Continue to challenge everything; continue to create new things; continue to be rejected for your unique work – it means you’re doing something right (and the few who understand your work – the important people – will continue to support you).

---

Every tactic and tool used by the Enemy is conquerable.

When you know these 8 fears are just part of the price you pay for attempting something new, different and bold, you can overcome them.

Now that we know what we’re in for, you have two choices:

1)    Stop.

There’s no reason to start in the first place if you have no intention of finishing (and shipping).  And if you don’t think you can deal with the fears above, better to be realistic in the beginning instead of wasting months (years) of time.

2)    Go.

Anyone can do it.

Few people choose to.

And that’s entirely on you.

My suggestion?

Never fight alone:

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growth of young entrepreneursThe Conventional Entrepreneur

en·tre·pre·neur:

"The owner or manager of a business enterprise who, by risk and initiative, attempts to make profits"

The entrepreneur seeks to make a profit – at least, conventionally speaking.

The conventional entrepreneur believes he can do something better (cheaper, faster, closer etc.) than what exists in the market place.

He builds something to fill a need in exchange for profit, and, we might imagine, does so because profit is the goal.

The Conventional Artist

art·ist:

"One, such as a painter, sculptor, or writer, who is able by virtue of imagination and talent or skill to create works of aesthetic value, especially in the fine arts"

The artist creates things of aesthetic value – again, at least conventionally speaking.

The artist does what he is compelled to do – which is to create art.  The artist creates what doesn’t exist, and, we might imagine, does so because he loves his craft intrinsically.

An Alternative

I propose a third option.

Someone who loves the process as much as the potential impact; who wouldn’t create if it didn’t affect others powerfully and positively; who takes himself seriously enough to do the terrifying, creative things others would gladly avoid.

I propose the idea of an entrepreneur who doesn’t create solely for return on investment, and an artist who doesn’t create solely for internal self-satisfaction.

I propose a hybrid: the Creative Entrepreneur.

The Creative Entrepreneur

cre·a·tive en·tre·pre·neur:

One whose business is an extension of one’s personality and art; whose purpose is creating something bigger than oneself, something that can grow and expand, but never at the expense of creating art as a gift; who seeks true freedom, even if it means uncertainty or failure; who desires self-determination, even if it means challenging the tribe; who does the hard, creative work, day in and day out, because it matters.

Creative Entrepreneurs in Action*

The Creative Entrepreneur weaves his art into every project, like AJ Leon from Misfits Inc. (twitter: @ajleon)

The Creative Entrepreneur invents beautiful, practical tools that enhance our lives, like Nate Kutsko of Kutsko Kitchen (twitter: @kutskokitchen)

The Creative Entrepreneur tells a story through film and story (and teaches others how to do the same), like Benjamin Jenks from Adventure Sauce (twitter: @benjaminojenks), or writes to inspire writers, like Jeff Goins from Goinswriter.com (twitter: @JeffGoins ).

Happy Discomfort

This concept is nothing new – the Creative Entrepreneur has always existed (from Archemides to Da Vinci to Ford).

But now, becoming a Creative Entrepreneur isn’t just more attainable than it’s ever been, it’s more imperative.

The ordinary fades away, the average is ignored, and the usual is just that (and lost in the noise).

But the Creative Entrepreneur stands out, sticks around, and leaves an impact.

The life of the Creative Entrepreneur isn’t easy, nor is it comfortable.

But it’s not supposed to be. 

We need to be happy in this wonderland without once being merely comfortable. [G. K. Chesterton]

 

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