Creative work is worky
“Creative work only seems like a magic trick to people who don’t understand that it’s ultimately still work.”
Robert M. Pirsig on getting narrow
“Phaedrus found that rhetoric at the University level was taught as a branch of reason alone. He was also having trouble with students who had nothing to say. Especially one girl, who was a serious, disciplined, and hardworking student. She wanted to write an essay about the United States. Phaedrus told her to narrow it to Bozeman but she couldn’t think of anything to say. Phaedrus told her to narrow it down to the main street of Bozeman. Still nothing. He then said “Narrow it down to the front of one building on the main street of Bozeman. The Opera House. Start with the upper left-hand brick.”The next day she returned with a 5,000 word essay on the front of the Opera House on the main street of Bozeman, Montana.
We get blocked from our own creativity because we just repeat what we have already heard. Until we really look at things and see them freshly for ourselves, we will have nothing new to say. “For every fact there is an infinity of hypotheses. The more you look the more you see.”
Steve Pavlina on playing for the draw
“You see… I don’t run my business to optimize revenue or profits. When I tried to do that, my real-world results were the exact opposite of what I wanted.
So these days I deliberately make business decisions that leave significant value on the table, untapped and unextracted.”
On passion, business, and douchebaggery
The Old Model: spend energy thinking up how to make money doing what I love and am good at (love+skill).
Potential New Model: spend energy leveraging my love+skill to truly help people.
Some ideas:
- Help people achieve total un-douchebaggery online.
- Help projects/organizations I love merchandize/market better.
- Help guys who cuss and who have new babies to feel more comfortable in their own skin and make the most of it.
- Help fledglings achieve true homemade cocktailing prowess.
- Teach young men to understand the art of cigar, or, at least, to not get sick when they smoke some.
And then, what if I marketed these things not for “the close” but for the long-haul relationship and/or the good of the art of dadding, cocktails, cigars, un-douchbaggery or whatever it is?
The Problem: I have to make money. Right? Right. But, truth be told, I don’t have a lot of wisdom on this point. I just feel it, like neurosis, like nagging mild-anxiety.
Come to think of it, this “money anxiety” around these businesses is many-faceted. Revenue is a great tool to prove to my wife this thing is worthwhile. It’s good in more ways than that too: it lets me buy things.
But it’s also what causes all the stress. It’s what forces me into furrowing my brow and getting all grown-up serious when I think about these businesses. When in real life I do it better when I do it for the art of it… instead of doing it for the result. Just ask my wife.
So, this is the shape of my double-mindedness today. It looks like this: can I shift my focus to apply my love+skill to truly make others’ lives better?
Steve Pavlina on Success vs. Success
“I suffered a negative cashflow each year from 1994-1998, and then from 1999 – present (12 years in a row and counting), I enjoyed a positive cashflow each year.
What the heck happened in 1999?
During my first 5 years in business, I focused on making my business successful. I pursued deals, money, and projects as if they were things to be acquired…
During my last 12 years in business, I focused on having fun, enjoying life, and creatively expressing myself. I stopped worrying about whether or not I was ever going to be successful. The bankruptcy supplied plenty of proof that I’d already failed dismally, so I didn’t see any point in continuing to pursue the same priorities that led me there.”
Give up on analytics, build something you love
“Give up on your analytics for a while. Make something you love instead.”
I just quoted myself, and I did it in the big quote style. So if you take anything away from this you take that quote. (more…)
Steve Martin on being successful
“Be so good they cant ignore you.”
Solid Time Management from Yuvi
The longer I watched the more I said “holy shit, that’s so true/brilliant.” I mean it.
This video feels gentle, almost lazy, but it’s not; there’s a few excellent tips in here.
These tips are excellent because they’re true and honest, not some “buy this,” graph that, drink this life hacker productivity.
It’s productivity like water. (more…)
Lawrence Pearsall Jacks on work & play
“A master in the art of living draws no sharp distinction between his work and his play; his labor and his leisure; his mind and his body; his education and his recreation. He hardly knows which is which. He simply pursues his vision of excellence through whatever he is doing, and leaves others to determine whether he is working or playing. To himself, he always appears to be doing both.”
Alan Watts on Following Your Passion
“I promise to abstain from exploiting my passions.”
Makes me think of my internet douchebaggery… wherein I try to ‘hack’ a passion to ‘turn’ a buck and ‘jack’ a profit. Maybe there’s something more sacred to these passions of mine.
To be fair, that would be a misinterpretation methinks. “Passion” in conversations about buddhism is normally in reference to desire in general, not the things you really geek out about and love.
BTW, this comes from an interesting lecture intro to Buddhism. Check it »