Six months ago I was asked a series of questions for Talent Zoo by writer Sara Barton, here are some of the questions with my answers.  There are over 20 questions, but I’ll post installments updating where necessary.

How did you decide on the title of your blog, Permission to Suck? What’s that about?

The blog “Permission to Suck” has actually been around for 5 or 6 years but it’s only been since August ‘09 that I’ve transformed it into something more comprehensive including original video interviews.

One of my close friends, Will McFarlane, and I regularly discuss our careers as creative professionals – he’s a professional guitarist and I’m a photographer. It surprised us just how many parallels there are between the two creative disciplines.

Early on we were lamenting about how hard it can be to try something new because after a long career there is a tendency to feel as though every new thing has to be a masterpiece.  It feels as though your reputation rides on your next photo or your next song; one false move and you’re discovered for a fraud.  I’m not sure when exactly, but at some point, “what we need is Permission To Suck” was uttered and it stuck.  A few days later I had a blog with that name and a month after that I wrote a 1000 word essay titled Permission To Suck that got some traction.

So, do creatives need permission to suck?

Freedom to fail is the disinfected version but, yes, we need it if we hope to grow professionally. As soon as you default to your “A” game – frequently necessary – creative growth is slowed. As Steven Johnson discussed at length in Where Good Ideas Come From, the “adjacent possible” is virtually ignored in favor of what we know works.

Simultaneous with developing an “A” game you hear leaving your mouth: “well, it’s my style”. Without question, it’s great to have a style but be true, are you creating work to fit a style or is your creativity leaving a wake that has style?

It’s easy to say I’m fearless; I’m pushing myself, but very hard to actually “do” in my opinion.  It’s hard to force oneself to be uncomfortable and accept inevitable failure – which is very uncomfortable by the way – especially for those who work for their food.  It’s easier to go with what you know.

I suppose the key is to keep rowing; move the boat.  Embrace Permission to Suck but through hard work, refuse to suck. If you keep moving it’s still possible to steer the boat and discover Steven Johnson’s adjacent possible.

My all-time favorite article is the “Creative Manifesto.” Can you tell me what inspired it?

Most of what I write echoes personal creative tensions. I get bored with myself easily. It’s as though every 4-5 year I had hit another wall. To be clear, I don’t take this as one of my better traits.

In this case, I started reading about creativity and while everything I read had a good message, it left me wanting. It all sounded so removed from a professional’s reality and the advice, on its face, sounds so pat and easy, whereas to me it felt convoluted and enigmatic, a.k.a Effing hard. I wrote the first draft in 30 minutes; I think I was in a mood. I reread it often so I don’t forget what I promised myself – it’s still hard but the Manifesto breaks it down for me.

Like I said, there is plenty of similar stuff written about creativity, but the PTS manifesto was aimed at professional creatives; those who make art & creativity a career choice. My hope is that it sounds as if you wrote it when a little pissed off at falling victim to your need to create. Besides, it’s trendy to have a manifesto isn’t it?

Listen to this NPR Podcast with Ed Norton and Bruce Springsteen

Fans recognize the brilliant genius of Bruce Springsteen, but I think creative professionals can all relate to the process he describes in this Fresh Air podcast. Springsteen’s motivation and passion informed his style not the reverse.  In my opinion, it is the key to a long career as a professional creative.

“you’re usually motivated by fear … I was afraid of losing myself, it is possible for your talent to be co-opted, and your identity moved and shifted to a place there you weren’t prepared for.” – Bruce Springsteen

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

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

Seth Godin's head

I’ve been reading Seth Godin since his second book Unleashing the Idea Virus 2001.  Linchpin is his most personal book to date.  In it he describes our current economic transformation from an individual’s viewpoint. Think of it as a pep talk for Purple Cows or a kick in the ass for the rest of the herd.

I’ve always thought of Godin as a marketing guy for the rest of us.  Idea Virus explained viral marketing, Purple Cow outlined market differentiation just as his others made marketing ideas clear and accessible.  Permission Marketing was a breakthrough since he was ahead of the curve and brought more new ideas to market with that book.

In Linchpin, Godin defines art as “The intentional act of connecting with someone else and changing them.”  While this might not be what many think of as art, it is a great definition when referring to the art of doing.  And really, is there any other kind?  I suppose there is the art of thinking but doing gets more results.

This is by far my favorite of his issues probably because in Linchpin, Godin covers nearly every point in the Permission To Suck Manifesto starting with number 1:

1) Snub expectations.  Excitement needs space; throw a few elbows if required.  Picasso’s friend and art critic, Guillaume Apollinaire, encouraged his cohorts to “innovate violently!   Much more risky for creative professionals, is to abide by rules.

Translated to words closer to his in Linchpin: To follow rules is to be a factory worker which these days is very risky since our factories are dying.

Piers Fawkes from trend blog PSFK interviews Seth Godin about his book Linchpin.

I had a short conversation with a good friend last night at a club.  A mention of his young son reminded me to relive my childhood.

His young pre-teen son is a talented skater seemingly on the “pro track”.  Somewhere in the discussion Dad disclosed, “when I asked him if he might someday perform as well as the World Champion on TV, his son’s answer was: “better”.

Instantly my thoughts reverted to my previous “emerging photographer” days when I thought I could do anything better – just give me time and opportunity.  If only we could bottle a little of that attitude for replenishment years after battle.

Within minutes a talented young photographer stopped by our table to say “Hi”.  I was prepared for the usual onslaught of enthusiasm that typically makes me jealous, only to hear the word “burnout” mixed in with – I’m trying to find the fun.

Instantly I’m thinking: “Burnout at your age? That’s weak.” -  followed by:  “I’ve got 30 years in, what have I lost?  Did I leave burnout and fun behind me 20 years ago?” Probably I have, since I’m solving similar; trying to find the fun.

Apply these points of the Manifesto for Creative Professionals:

4.    It’s a passion play for pay. You’re a whore, or not, it all depends on how much money is in the bank.  It’s a crucial balance that keeps sanity from escaping.  Your clarity of purpose resolves the left and right hemispheres.  Ultimately the decision for what kind of creative you are going to be is up to you, but don’t let the vision go blurry.

14.    Don’t let anyone talk you out of your passion. If you have passion for an idea, don’t lose it by asking others if they think it’s good.  They probably won’t.

16.     Keep a heightened sense of curiosity and stay excited about possibilities.  Don’t get jaded.  Reinvigorate.  Find the new in what you do.

17.   Maintain that childhood vulnerability, innocence and sense of wonder.  Rewind your adult ego to those years when it didn’t matter.

This time, an addition of three items to the Permission To Suck Manifesto comes from my own attempts recently to reignite my passion for photography.  It’s not that I stopped enjoying the work but it’s that I had forgotten what it felt like when everything was new.

Suspension of disbelief might be the answer – whatever works – but these three points have been rolling around in my head the past couple months.

16. Keep a heightened sense of curiosity and stay excited about possibilities.  Don’t get jaded. Reinvigorate. Find the new in what you do.
17. Maintain that childhood vulnerability, innocence and sense of wonder.  Rewind your adult ego to those years when it didn’t matter.
18.    Think disruptive thoughts, embrace chaos and be the sworn rival of systematic tidiness.  Get in the face of tight systems that work well for no reason.

See the full Permission To Suck Manifesto.

A Manifesto for Creative Professionals.

Somewhere in your personal history a decision was made to forgo a “real job”; one your parents would understand.  Artist, creative director, writer, musician, photographer, actor, fine artist or pick one – you got attention for a talent or liked doing it so much that there was just no room to commit significant time to a profession less flattering gratifying. You became one of them sensitive types whose ego is vulnerably bonded to their work.  True objective distance is pointless but it’s best to have a survival strategy.

Let’s start here:

1.    Snub expectations.  Excitement needs space; throw a few elbows if required.  Picasso’s friend and art critic, Guillaume Apollinaire, encouraged his cohorts to “innovate violently!”   Much more risky for creative professionals, is to abide by rules.

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.

3.    There’s NO plan “B”. Quit moonlighting.  Put in the hours; work without a net.  If you have a plan “B” it’s too easy to bail, and you’ll want to.  Part timers can’t keep up with the guy who’s bustin’ it like a sex crazed school boy.

4.    It’s a passion play for pay. You’re a whore, or not, it all depends on how much money is in the bank.  It’s a crucial balance that keeps sanity from escaping.  Your clarity of purpose resolves the left and right hemispheres.  Ultimately the decision for what kind of creative you are going to be is up to you, but don’t let the vision go blurry.

5.    Industry best practices are not creative. Best practices are maintenance and benchmarking is linear: this leads to that, variation is less professional.  The state of the art didn’t arrive by formula or recipe.

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.

7.    The committee is usually wrong; however the crowd is commonly right but incredibly dull. If you’re part of the crowd you will be sourced and forgotten.

8.    Ideas are like lightning strikes hitting you unaware after you’ve been rubbing a cat balloon on a wool carpet for months.

9.     Everyone is creative but only a select few can deal with the risk of ego crushing rejection that inevitably comes from the direction you least expect.  If your work is worth more to you than the safety of groups or a secure fortune then you’re “a creative”.

10.    That road block was dropped there for a reason; it’s so you learn how to maneuver or to accept the pain of hitting it.  Either way, if you don’t survive the test, it wasn’t worth the trip.

11.    Find a way to turn your weaknesses into strengths, but don’t tell anyone you’re doing it.

12.    Putting creativity into words dilutes the idea unless you’re a writer.  It’s only creative if you actually create it.  “I could’ve done that” doesn’t count.

13.    If you have a style, be sure it’s following you and not vice versa.  If you’re chasing your style, you’ve taken a wrong turn. (see  #5 “best practices”)  Follow your muse, let others call it your style.  Don’t borrow from yourself too often.

14.    Don’t let anyone talk you out of your passion. If you have passion for an idea, don’t lose it by asking others if they think it’s good.  They probably won’t.

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.