Believe in what you do, because you may have to do it for a long time before it catches on.
The question is not Will you succeed? but rather, Will you matter?
If you are wiling to do something that might not work, you are closer to being an artist.
The big win is when you refuse to settle for average or mediocre.
The goal of a marketing interaction isn’t to close the sale, any more than the goal of a first date is to get married. No, the opportunity is to move forward, to earn attention and trust and curiosity and conversation.
Kings fear change. Leaders crave it.
But what if I fail? You will. A better question might be, ‘after I fail, what then?’ If you’ve chosen well, after you fail you will be one step closer to succeeding, you will be wiser and stronger and you almost certainly will be more respected by all of those that are afraid to try.
Too often, the person who wrecks our work is us.
You can’t win by being more average than average.
I don’t think we have any choice. I think we have an obligation to change the rules, to raise the bar, to play a different game, and to play it better than anyone has any right to believe is possible.
Being an artist isn’t a genetic disposition or a specific talent. It’s an attitude we can all adopt. It’s a hunger to seize new ground, make connections, and work without a map. If you do those things, you’re an artist.
Before you tell yourself you have no right to invent this or improve that, remind yourself that the person before you had no right either, but did it anyway.
If it’s worth listening to, it’s worth questioning until you understand it.
Don’t do it because it’s your job, do it because you can.
There’s nothing wrong with having a plan. Plans are great. But missions are better. Missions survive when plans fail, and plans almost always fail.
If you try to delight the undelightable, you’ve made yourself miserable for no reason.
You don’t have to settle. It’s a choice you get to make every day.
You can raise the bar or you can wait for others to raise it, but it’s getting raised regardless.
You can risk being wrong or you can be boring.
Good ideas come from bad ideas, but only if there are enough of them.