I just finished reading Walter Isaacson’s biography of Steve Jobs. Great book by the way – if you like stories of innovation and inspiration as I do. One of my favorite quotes from Steve Jobs – and there are many – is this:

“Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.” – Steve Jobs

If you’re anything like me you’ve had that dream of being naked in front of an audience at least once. At some point, someone pointed to you and said, “you ain’t that good” or “that’s too hard, don’t even try.” Chances are it was the mirror doing so.

Further, if you’re anything like me you’ve had dreams – usually of the daytime variety – that haven’t materialized for one reason or another. My excuse inventory included: I don’t have the resources, I don’t know enough, or my talent and skills don’t run that deep – blah, bah – you know, the usual stuff.

A few things are now blindingly clear to me.

• Skill trumps talent in the long run.
• Ignore reality. If you want it bad enough it will happen.
• Discard plan “B” because it distracts from plan “A”.
• Fear is the biggest obstacle you’ll face.
• Doing anything beats simply thinking about doing great things. Do something; lay a brick the best way you know how.

Fear runs deep. We can conquer fear but fear of fear is yet one level harder. It’s best to remember Steve Job’s quote; “… you’re already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.”

Historically – and perhaps some of you can relate – my biggest personal challenge has been finding the right passion to follow. I’m your classic shiny object chaser. They say, “Love what you do beyond reason because any rational person would give up.” Yet, after a time, it seems as though meaning leaks out. My conclusion: That thing you love to needs to touch something in others or its endurance fails; most products are disposable, build something that endures.

Settle for building a successful business and it will close – it’s the basic difference between Steve Jobs and Bill Gates. Both are great business men but Gates eventually bailed from Microsoft to find meaning – Microsoft is irrelevant. Jobs found meaning in what he built and ended up changing the world through Apple.

I thought I’d share this short video [uploaded at this youtube channel] that a few Facebook friends help me discover. Will Smith – yes, that Will Smith – talks motivation, hard work, talent, skill and passion. Well worth the 4 minutes.

Wait. Who is that singing?

I take some pride in my early discovery: At Ribfest 2005, September at Five County Stadium, Zebulon, NC., while there to support the featured band – good friends, great band – and, oh yeah, eat some ribs – surprise – a magnificent voice stopped our tracks dead. Rhiannon Giddens – wow – who is that, and why have we not seen her before?

We got home and I started a search. Turned out Rhiannon was a recent graduate of Oberlin Conservatory now singing fiddle tunes – how curious, how awesome. I fired off an introduction email and began arranging a photo shoot.

Schedules being what they are, it wasn’t until the Carolina Chocolate Drops had formed and were well on their way national attention before we met for a photo session at Stagville Plantation’s Slave Quarters in Durham, NC.

Prairie Home Companion, Grand ol’ Opry, NPR interviews, countless magazine articles, appearance in the film, “The Great Debaters”, and a Grammy for Best Traditional Folk Album – and 4 years later – I asked Rhiannon if she’d sit with Armand Lenchek and I for a video interview.

Here’s and edited 16 minutes of the 80 she spent answering our creative curiosity:

via Carolina Chocolate Drops website:
This is the story in a nutshell. Rhiannon’s father was a classically-trained singer whose legacy was a warning not to study voice before the age of 16. So Rhiannon waited until she was 16 and set off for choral camp. It was great, so she applied to Oberlin College and took on the deepest part of the classical vocal river, opera. “I did five operas and three main roles,” Rhiannon summarizes, “I got into it pretty hardcore.”

Any new clever combination of A + B = Creativity, and there is more access to “A” and “B” than ever and more tomorrow than today. This is obviously true. Also obvious is the love of creativity in everything; people who never thought of themselves as creative are feelin’ it, and those who are in traditionally creative fields are pressured to be more imaginative.  Isn’t technology wonderful?

Well… to be honest, I’m getting little tired of hearing about how creative I must be; F%$# you, I’ll be who I am – you go and be fresh and new and different, I’m going to concentrate on being a better me.

Yes, we were born to be creative; hell, we were born out of a creative act. But here’s the thing, while creativity is the core of human existence, aren’t we all powerfully drawn to virtuosity? Virtuosity is human excellence of skill, fluency and style. It’s the heart skipping grandness of human achievement.

Creativity is a common and natural act. Yet, being a virtuoso is the ultimate analog goal requiring sacrifice. Great musicians, fine artists, writers, and even athletes inspire awe in what is possible when a life is devoted to skill honing and potential accomplishment. Success is visceral.

For example, when we think “virtuoso” our thoughts go to great musicians. Mastering an instrument isn’t something one can hand off to a machine in order to further increase skill complexity [architecture for example]. It takes a lifetime of devotion and it’s that devotion combined with accomplishment which draws our admiration.

The devotion to a skill that produces useless beauty is virtuous. Aesthetic aptitude + highly skilled craft + just enough creativity to be interesting = Virtuosity. This equation says nothing about being original just to be original.

No matter how fresh, mediocrity is the middle state overflowing with human weakness and unevenness. We’re pushing for fresh creativity but Larry Bird in the ’86 NBA Championship game defines virtuosity.

Virtuosity demands respect; it’s the complete loss of static in communication, it’s the defeat of flaws in the act of performance with a resonance that sends the human spirit. The virtuoso is a supreme victor in a battle over the average creative mediocrity.

Ira Gitler is an American jazz historian and journalist, listen to how he describes Art Tatum, the virtuoso pianist, in this video. Gitler is in awe of the skill Tatum achieved in one lifetime. It’s spectacular, it’s unique and it’s original Tatum. Tatum’s level of virtuosity set him apart; his virtuosity was freshness, everything he did was newly created because his level of musical skill is so rarely reached.

Zenph Sound Innovations is a creative company designing algorithms and deliverable software able to reproduce the virtuosity of artists like Art Tatum or Rachmaninoff on stage. It’s further demonstration of the lengths we’ll go to experience virtuosity. A recording isn’t good enough, we want the experience. We want to be intimately familiar with the performance down to what it feels like to be him.

Zenph’s obsession will succeed in creating a performance snapshot, a clearer portrait of virtuosity; the result, not the origin. Their technology is exciting. Our understanding of performance will be enhanced but it’s still a copy closer to a parlor trick than virtuosity.  To be authentically original is to make the sacrifice to be a virtuoso.

I’m willing to bet a huge ransom that an original low tech recording of Tatum will retain an higher value than a masterful performance reproduction of Tatum’s playing a la Zenph.  What does it say about virtuosity when reproduction quality isn’t worth as much as being closer to the authentic original?

Take a look at the technology behind performance reproduction in this video. John Q. Walker, PhD – Chairman & Chief Technology Officer at Zenph Sound Innovations.  Gave this presentation for TED in 2007.

In a post titled, “Why Do You Do What You Do; Why Should I Care?” from Oct. 12, I introduced Simon Sinek’s TED talk based on his book: Start with Why.

Frankly, I find his book helpful. Creative Professionals (like me) are caught in a cycle of showing first, what we do, then sometimes, how we do it in an effort to differentiate ourselves from competition. We hope to sell others on our value but can easily forget what value our work has to us personally.

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

Call it our passion but if you’re anything like me, it’s mostly taken for granted until discovering a void.  But, if I’m selling my value and forget my “WHY”, then my cause is lost.  Actions without a cause won’t accumulate passionate followers.

Here’s Me Starting with Why

I photograph because I see something with which I want to spend more time and of which I want to make partially mine.  It’s a quest of surprises; I surprise myself when I frame something that stirs my emotion; a feeling much more than a thought. It’s that moment of surprise that makes me want to do it again and again.

Camera in front of my face, I’m bracing for it. I feel it when it’s there and disappointed when it’s not. So potent is the anticipation of the surprise moment that the senses surrounding a shutter release becomes a jolt of electricity as though feeding an addiction. More please. It’s how you know you’re a photographer.  If you don’t feel it, you’re probably not one.

I’m opinionated. My opinion is expressed at the moment I press the shutter. Just like that person on the bus that won’t stop talking about their politics, I’m showing my photographs except you can’t tell me to shut up. My visuals are much more persuasive than my rant. Like passing a car wreck or a promised glimpse of George Clooney, I hope to lure you in.

Simultaneously, at the moment of surprise, I want share my discovery. Post capture it’s the profundity of the find along with the clarity of vision that dictates whether it gets shared or I move on to the next sighting. Can I make you feel my surprise?  Can I draw you into the emotional story?

It’s as simple as seeing an unusual shape, color or texture juxtaposed – or as complex as combining an emotional memory with what is happening in front of the camera as an unusual turn of a story.  It’s what I see and you don’t until I tell you to look.

I look for beauty but not always conventional beauty [I’m not one of those image makers who can capture horrific human failures and long for more].  Found in stories, moments, emotions and character, beauty is that which I want to make mine.

I produce the media for the joy of making. The fine craft of selective lighting, composition, and tonality rewards my personal expression. The making is often the only path to closure.

I work with advertising, design and editorial businesses for the collaborative creative community that surrounds the industry, while at the same time, it’s what allows me to finance deeper exploration. Like a back stage pass to the world, I can often gain access to opportunities unavailable to those outside the business.  -  Bruce DeBoer, Photographer

________________________________________________________

My how and what varies, but the why is remarkably stable.

Care to give it a shot?  It may not be as easy as you think: Why do you do what you do?

Why do some individuals lead with their creative ideas?

We all get attention for what we do.  To get more attention we’re told to get a plan or a better design: goals, objectives, tactics, a proprietary process, a unique value proposition, distinct messaging, a brand strategy.

Rarely are we asked, “why do you do this thing you do?” What’s more, in our deepest frustration, if we fail to find an answer to why, enthusiasm is lost for how we are doing it, and we risk abandoning what we do altogether.

What’s your purpose, your cause, your belief?  What gets you out of bed in the morning? What we do is clear to others. How we do it is less transparent but the “why”  is fuzzy maybe even invisible.  Yet, according to Simon Sinek, “people don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it.”

Photographers, musicians, writers make things – creatively wonderful things.  What they make has a style, a voice, and a viewpoint which makes it easier for the creator to ignore the “why”.

The artifacts are deeply connected to the creator’s ego that gets bruised with rejection. Rejection brings focus back on the artifacts; what we make and how we make it – “why” is forgotten in order to focus on the pain of rejection.

Simon Sinek inspired me to add a law to the Permission To Suck Manifesto. In the #1 position it now reads:

1.  Hold on tight to your “why”. Why do you do this thing you do? It is the root of all you create and the power of your inspiration.

“Why” is your deepest inside stuff. If you don’t know why you do what you do, how can you expect others to believe in you; why should they care?

Actions without a cause don’t accumulate followers.

Leaders act from the inside “why” and move on to how they do what they do. Mr. Sinek is codifying the passion for creating in a counter intuitive approach. He starts with why and calls his approach the golden circle -  concentrically from the inside out: why > how > what.

People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it.

[via TED website]

Beginning as a student in anthropology, Simon Sinek turned his fascination with people into a career of convincing people to do what inspires them. His earliest work was in advertising, moving on to start Sinek Partners in 2002, but he suddenly lost his passion despite earning solid income. Through his struggle to rediscover his excitement about life and work, he made some profound realizations and began his helping his friends and their friends to find their “why” — at first charging just $100, person by person. Never planning to write a book, he penned Start With Why simply as a way to distribute his message.

Sinek also contributes to several efforts in the non-profit sphere: He works with Count Me In, an organization created to help one million women-run businesses reach a million dollars in revenue by 2012, and serves on the Board of Directors for Danspace Project, which advances art and dance.  He writes and comments regularly for several major publications and teaches a graduate-level class in strategic communications at Columbia University.

“I try to find, celebrate and teach leaders how to build platforms that will inspire others. “

Simon Sinek

Something well designed is compelling; we are drawn to its efficiency, effectiveness, elegance, beauty, and often it’s cleverness and humor. You’re a designer when you arrange your clothes in an order that gets you out the door faster in the morning, or when you plan a route to the office.

Then why is “design thinking” so hard for so many to understand?

In my view it’s because we have a tendency to think things more complicated than they are; the enigmatic isn’t routinely unpacked but rather labeled something else or believed to be something we understand easier or perhaps ignored completely. Maybe we find the easiest remedy for complexity is to go to the end result and call it design: an iPod, Ferrari, or the elegant kitchen utensil.

Great designers design great things from information architecture to artifacts for living, but the truly great designer finds the right problem to solve that makes a difference and connects emotionally to the end user. They advance humanity by forward thinking with the support of observation and research, empathy for the end user and serendipity in the process.

I put together this 13 minute video with the help of 5 great design thinkers; Matt Munoz, David Burney, John Loftin, Jonathan Opp and Todd Coats.  In it they help us to understand design thinking.

To paraphrase David Burney in this video: Design is a way of life. Designers find solutions to the right problems through the balance of science, analytics, and math + art, spirit and intuition.

[Via Wikipedia:]

Design thinking is a process for practical, creative resolution of problems or issues that looks for an improved future result.^[1] It is the essential ability to combine empathy, creativity and rationality to meet user needs and drive business success. Unlike analytical thinking, design thinking is a creative process based around the “building up” of ideas. There are no judgments early on in design thinking. This eliminates the fear of failure and encourages maximum input and participation in the ideation and prototype phases.

Clichés are born from veneers of understanding and observation.  If you lack empathy for your subject you’re doomed to only shooting hackneyed or trite photographs. Or worse, you get busy mocking your subjects and claiming the lie is extraordinary.  I’ve taken my share of these and I’m fairly certain they won’t endure beyond my wages.

As though you’re acting the expert at a party when you know little about the subject, artists make false statements through sensational imagery but risk less since the image is a piece of reality, i.e. proof that you had a right to the statement. Most deliberate photographs start as an assumption; this is what this person is and how I feel about them.  Naturally the best assumptions are accurate but the finest photographers remain open to expanding on conjecture. They refuse to be defined by clichéd conjecture and thrive on discovery.

Artistic style, that is too much method, can force assumptions. This is the origin of my suspicion regarding pinhole photos in gallery exhibitions or an entire 30+ picture show of those quirky “tilt / shift” photos where everything looks tiny. The photographer’s discovery is easily limited to a technique; they’re lying about something because every subject fit into the “box” of the photographer’s phony revelation that pinhole, tilt/shift photography, or other, adds value to the imagery.  Yes, some lies are bigger than others but eventually all the photos in the collection lose authenticity like a politician changing their long held view to gain votes.

photo of Horton Foote by Keith Carter

I visited the National Portrait Gallery and rediscovered Keith Carter – a photographer I’ve long admired.  I saw his portrait of American Playwright and screenwriter Horton Foote in which Carter limited focus using forward lens tilts. I had forgotten him.  I saw it and mumbled, “there it is”.

Standing close enough to hear a mumble, my wife asked, “there what is”?  I launched into a forgettable monologue about how techniques are often so trendy and misused but sometimes they’re perfect. Keith Carters portrait of Horton Foote was one of those that was perfect.  The technique wasn’t trendy yet; it wasn’t an iPhone app, it was simply a technique honestly used in the process of discovery.

“I don’t think there is any great mystery about the vagarities of making art. We all start out the same way: learn your craft, work hard at trying to be coherent with your pictures, and pay your nickel and take your chance.  The bedrock in a body of work is your subject matter and how you relate to it. If you have empathy and care about your subject matter, then discoveries, deeper meanings, and understanding have a greater chance of evolving from that work. Sometimes you just have to get butt-naked.” – Keith Carter [via Calumet Photographer Spotlight]

[[Show as slideshow]]
All photos in slide show by Keith Carter

More on Keith Carter here.

• From Uncertain To Blue (1988)
• The Blue Man (1990)
• Mojo (1992) ISBN 978-0-89263-335-7
• Heaven of Animals (1995)
• Bones (1996) ISBN 978-0-8118-1282-5
• Keith Carter Photographs — 25 Years (1997) ISBN 978-0-292-71195-2
• Holding Venus (2000) ISBN 978-1-892041-24-1
• Ezekiel’s Horse (2000) ISBN 978-0-292-71229-4
• Two Spirits: Keith Carter and Mauro Fiorese (2002) ISBN 9788837020170
• Opera Nuda (2006) ISBN 978-1-888899-25-2
• “Dream of A PLACE of Dreams” (with Mauro Fiorese) (2008) ISBN 9788890202377
• A Certain Alchemy (2008) ISBN 978-0-292-71908-8
• Fireflies: Photographs of Children (2009) ISBN 029272182X

Keith Carter Biography [via his website]

Keith Carter is an internationally recognized photographer and educator. Born in Madison, Wisconsin in 1948,he holds the endowed Walles Chair of Art at Lamar University Beaumont, Texas. He is the recipient of two National Endowment for the Arts Regional Survey Grants and the Lange-Taylor Prize from The Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University. In 1997 Keith Carter was the subject of an arts profile on the national network television show, CBS Sunday Morning. In 1998, he received Lamar University’s highest teaching honor, the University Professor Award, and he was named the Lamar University Distinguished Lecturer.

By The Way – in case you didn’t know :

Tilt Shift is not an iPhone app – ok, it is – but that’s not its origin and neither is the look of altering the plane of focus something native to Photoshop.

If you’re a serious photographer using the technique but don’t recognize the name Theodor Scheimpflug or understand the significance of lens nodal points, here’s a starting point:

Theodor Scheimpflug (1865-1911) stated that; ‘when the extended lines from the lens plane, the object plane and the film plane intersect at the same point, the entire subject plane is in focus.’

I owe my knowledge and practice to my college text that I first cracked in 1976 and still recommend for those interested in knowing more: View Camera Techniques by Leslie D. Stroebel.

Sir Isaac was right:  “An object at rest will remain at rest unless acted on by an unbalanced

force.” This isn’t only the first law of motion, but also the first law of freelance – that is to say, chiefly self accountable creative professionals.

It’s how you know you’re freelance. At least until that project you’ve been chasing lands with both feet on a due date, you hear yourself saying things like (feel free to use these):

• This freelance life is so stressful I deserve a break.
• Getting out of the office will be good for me.
• I need inspiration; all I’m doing today is read at the coffee shop.
• Play is good for my head; I’ll come back refreshed.

These bullets are actually dead on true, so why after completing all four has the unbalanced force eluded?

No definite deadlines. No particular accountability; no tangibly urgent “do this or else” – hence, there appears to be little procrastination if you have no goal other than: “if you don’t you’re career will eventually die a slow, lingering death.”

Cool definition: “motivation is the psychological feature that arouses an organism to action toward a desired goal.”

We ADD professionals know about arousal; with the right provocation we’ll work till we drop from exhaustion, but where does that stimulation live exactly? I want to drill successfully like the Deepwater Horizon for oil. I’d rather struggle to cap it than frequently hunting it.

An amateur’s motivation is uncomplicated. I do it because I love it; I have a passion for ____________ (insert “X” hobby here).  Pay for play and things change. Suddenly my time for passion has a posted value beyond self satisfaction. Motives morph – however slowly – from intrinsic to extrinsic, and extrinsic is deadly for creatives.

“I don’t leave the couch for under $10K”

So it goes like this: We’re passionate about hobby X. We practice with enthusiasm creating great skill for X. We quit our day job to create a business out of our passion for X. Creative businesses can take years to develop profitability – a recession hits – and we find our passion for X waning as our fiscal liabilities intensify.

You’re freelance, you know about cash flow; some months are easier than others. Like passion – sometimes you have it and sometimes you don’t. Your number one job is keeping a strong grip on passion’s handle, however, with passion driven businesses your credit line is self discipline.

Consider using these principles:

The passion path: Objectives > Goals > Strategy > Tactics – in that order. Design your path. Once your path is designed, reverse the order, head-down, looking up occasionally to keep track of progress and results. Ride whatever passion you’ve rallied down the path; keep a map if you must.

Self discipline: Your path design needs to be well defined. Imagine walking through a forest, if the path isn’t well defined you feel confused and stop to look for clearing. What looks vaguely like a path may turn into a big waste of time. The more efficient paths will have few obstacles and distractions; automate as much as possible.

The carrot: Know your rewards but avoid extrinsic motivations whenever possible. I remind all my artist friends (and myself) that if their passion was money they’d be rich. Seriously, the rich aren’t rich because of any extrinsic motivation. They love money; dare I say the more they love it the more they have? So it’s a bummer; your passion is for X; suck it up – money won’t drive you. Maybe you’ll get lucky and get rich off your passion, but the moment you pursue someone else’s money, your driving  south.

Nothing Like Success: The magic in doing is that completion feels like success regardless of outcome.  If your out of shape no one tries to run a marathon straight out of the blocks.  Do I even have to write “set realistic goals“? Try making promises if you need deadlines, collaborate if you need accountability.  Giving it away is good if in return you actually get something you need done. i.e. portfolio pieces, new songs practiced, new techniques learned, articles published, etc.

Permission To Suck Manifesto Laws Applied:

6.    Your creativity is about your heart, not their surface. Creativity is your world view filtered through your talent. It’s your passion, experience, expertise, inspiration and your rules that drive you to create wonderful things that you’re destined to hate because they’re not good enough, and others are open to admire because they couldn’t do it.
11.    Find a way to turn your weaknesses into strengths, but don’t tell anyone you’re doing it.
15.    Lose the habit of being successful.  Success can doom your career to mediocrity. Embrace the fact that you’re never going to make it and find comfort in other things.  Once success becomes your work, it’s over and if you’re a creative professional, success looks an awful lot like cash and cheering crowds.

For more on motivation try:

Clay Shirky
Dan Pink
Dan Heath

Here are a few works on the subject from Scott Belsky – Founder & CEO, Behance – yet another great knowledge resource.

Creativity X Organization = Impact

Originally Published on Nov. 2009 – try it

While interviewing Will McFarlane I was reminded how critically important it is to avoid getting caught up in the nuance of our creative fields.  “Music can be math without feel or tone” is one of my take away quotes in part II.  Extending that, any field can be dry when devoid of feel or tone”.

It’s way more about what we do with what we know, than what we know.  How extraordinarily remedial is that?  Yet, how much time do we all spend in the pursuit of technique at the sacrifice of feel and tone?  Some players get more feeling out of 3 major chords than others do with a full knowledge of music theory.  Some photographers have an intangible spirit to their work that leads others to a fruitless study of lighting technique.

Technique is great.  Lack of it is limiting.  Then again, tone and feel is worth a constant reminder of its importance to great work.

Biography:

It’s hard to imagine how many 12 year old young men watched the Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1963 and were inspired to pick up the guitar saying, “I want to do that”. Many, I’m sure. Voice lessons at six years old and piano a year later, young Will was clearly better primed than most.

Motown’s R&B captured Will’s imagination in High School while

growing up on Long Island, which helped him develop as a fine rhythm guitarist.

Bonnie Raitt enlisted the 23 year old college escapee McFarlane as a member of her band one night when she heard him play at a Cambridge, MA night club. He toured with her band from 1974 – 1980 before leaving the road to move into the studio.

While with The Bonnie Raitt band, Will shared stages with living blues and folk legends. That’ll do wonders for your playing but more importantly, Will learned to listen for what guitar licks to leave out to best play up the band.

In 1980 Will McFarlane joined the famed “Swampers”; He moved to Muscle Shoals, Alabama to play and learn from Jimmy Johnson and the boys. Bobby Blue Bland, Little Milton, Etta James and Johnnie Taylor are a few that get off hand mention as clients of Muscle Shoals Sound.

Since 2001, Will McFarlane, his Wife Janet, their three children, and five grand kids all live in North Carolina’s Triangle Region. The Will McFarlane Band plays regionally but Will continues his studio work in Nashville and Muscle Shoals as well as live gigs both nationally and abroad.

Frank Stasio, WUNC Radio interview of Will McFarlane

I must have had ½ dozen conversations with musicians, photographers and designers in the last week about artistic soul searching. Perhaps we’re looking for meaning, or overcoming creative block, or simply have too much free time, yet my wager is on the speed of which our cultural environment is changing.  We simply can’t keep up so we are gradually choosing an alternative: finding a place to plant our flag.

When asked about including fret tapping in his playing, one of my guitar heroes answered, “I don’t like the sound enough to spend the time necessary to master it”. To help me out, immediately following my question, I watch as he fret tapped a solo only to abandon the sound in seconds.  Message received: “I’m willing to try anything but I’ve got to have it inside me if it’s going to have meaning”.

The choices are so vast; the horizon is expanding at such a rate it’s as though we are pioneers racing west to find the most fertile land to which we can lay claim. We can only sprint for so long before every square mile passes in hopes of something better around the corner.  At the end of the day, we’re still homeless and looking.

We, the more experienced folks (please accept my generosity), get fooled into thinking our legacy habits are getting in the way of younger seemingly more agile talents.  I’ve watched vigilantly with the wisdom that human capacities don’t change all that much; human is human, look for the patterns they’re consistent through history.

Probing for artistic soul can make an agile impression but experience easily keeps pace with enthusiasm by avoiding needless wholesale experimentation. Edginess is commonly a dormant tradition, like 80’s fashion, tweaked then labeled fresh.

What I see is an increasingly large group of creatives probing deeper inside to find what they own; what unique individual value can inform their work. In spite of that, we make comparisons to a growing creative class: we see things, hear things, and witness ideas that shake our confidence.

“I would never have thought of doing that.”

The Truth:

Of course not, because it’s not you; why do you expect any “other” to be something you could have done? Look inside, plant the flag and do what’s authentic.

Permission To Suck Manifesto Law #2

The boss is the problem; the puzzle to solve, the idea to create, the crowd to excite, or your soul to satisfy.  Don’t piss off the boss.

Seth Godin had a great post last week about adding value, avoiding factory work, and staying true to your art:

A small island grows sugar cane. Many people harvest it, and one guy owns the machine that can process the cane and turn it into juice.

Who wins?

Go Here for more: Seth Godin – The Sugar Cane Machine