Most of the time, creative entrepreneurs lose interest long before their marketing message loses its power.
Do the emotional labor of working on things that others fear.
Human beings, thanks to culture and genetics, are inclined to be pessimistic, fearful, skeptical and believers in conspiracy theories. We also don’t like change.
What we most need in our lives, though, is something worth doing, worth it because we care.
Discomfort brings engagement and change. Discomfort means you’re doing something that others were unlikely to do, because they’re hiding out in the comfortable zone. When your uncomfortable actions lead to success, the organization rewards you and brings you back for more.
When you set down the path to create art, whatever sort of art it is, understand that the path is neither short not easy. That means you must determine if the route is worth the effort. If it’s not, dream bigger.
If you can embrace the idea that your success and happiness are tied up in defeating the fear that’s holding you back, you’re 90 percent of the way to where you need to go, because no, we’re not kids, and no, this is not a bike.
Authenticy in marketing is telling a story people want to hear.
If it’s work, we try to figure out how to do less, If it’s art, we try to figure out how to do more.
Art is the act of navigating without a map.
Ideas don’t get smaller when they’re shared, they get bigger.
Debt creates stress, stress creates behaviors that don’t lead to happiness.
Go ahead, fail. Try to avoid mistakes, though.
The second person to write a story about a young boy and an escaped slave on the Mississippi wasn’t a novelist, he was a typist.
After you produce you can select. you can curate. you can censor. But for now, have bad ideas, lots and lots of bad ideas.
Not only must you be an artist, must you be generous, and must you be able to see where you can help but you must also be aware. Aware of where your skills are welcomed.
Great leaders create movements by empowering the tribe to communicate. They establish the foundation for people to make connections, as opposed to commanding people to follow them.
The digital asset that matters is trust. Awareness first, then interaction, and maybe a habit, but all three mean nothing if they don’t lead to permission and trust. The privilege of connection. Everything else is slippery.
Excellence isn’t about meeting the spec, it’s about setting the spec.
Art is never defect-free. Things that are remarkable never meet spec, because that would make them standardized, not worth talking about.