This quote is from Dick Bruna, a children’s books author.
It’s not always about what’s on the page. Beautiful things use space for framing and contrast. Ideas need space to grow.
An insecure designer will continue to add functions, specs and images to clutter up the space. Each sparkly new feature is a mask covering up a flawed or unoriginal product.
Sometimes the greatest opponent to doing great things is that little voice inside your head. The best thing to do to shut it up is to DO exactly what that little voice says that you couldn’t.
Because that little voice inside your head is afraid. It’s afraid of trying something and failing. It’s afraid of succeeding and having everything change. It’s afraid of challenging the status quo of the everyday pattern of your life.
Ignore that little voice inside your head. Instead, listen to the feeling in your heart that’s begging you to create or try something new.
I did something this weekend that I haven’t done for a while. Read. A book. Not a magazine. Not a blog. Not a news site. A book.
There is so much great content out there. Real ideas, thoughts and arguments that are printed on pages and bound. It’s great fodder for a creative mind. And I had this obsession of trolling bookstores. I’d pick up the latest mantra written by Hugh or Seth or Ramit and flip through it. I would buy it. And then it would sit on my shelf collecting dust.
The act of buying the book was what I enjoyed. It possessed all of the ambitions of reading and learning, but lacked the action. It’s how people feel when buying lottery tickets. The act of buying the ticket provides a high where you get to dream about all of the stuff that you would do with the money. The vacations. The house that you’d buy. The car.
Buying a book led to the same euphoria. Anything was possible. I would read these pages, my brain would be filled with brilliant ideas and then I would go out and change the world. Instead, nothing happened. It would sit on my desk unread for months.
This was an expensive habit. Expensive because it wasn’t paying off. I was spending money to buy the materials but not investing the time to follow through with it.
So this Friday, I started reading.
A lot of the time, we purchase things based on an goal. You buy brand new Nikes because you’re going to go running. You buy a guitar because you want to learn how to play. You buy a new camera because you want to take pictures. But the process doesn’t stop with the purchase. That’s the beginning. The next step is to follow up with action.
Andy Warhol was an interesting character. He famous for making “Pop Art” less about snobiety and more accessible to the people. He was about mass production, not uppity art. About focusing on the message, not the creative medium. And he was about pushing that message out to as many people as possible.
Artists aren’t people who can paint. They’re not people who can draw. They’re curators. They’re people who are able to find beauty where others miss it. They craft a story behind the beauty they find. They draw it out, so that other people can appreciate it.
A big challenge, especially in creative industries, is keeping the fire alive. Staying motivated. Continually delivering. Learning new things. Keeping current. Not becoming a dinosaur.
To your employers, you want to be a choice. Not an obligation.
You don’t want to be the guy that working at the firm from the beginning and is just coasting. The guy who has known the founders for so long that they would feel guilty for firing him. That guy is dead weight. He doesn’t contribute. He doesn’t create. He just complains.
Nobody cares about the award you won 8 years ago. Tenure and seniority are worthless. 20 years of past experience is meaningless unless you’ve proven that you can still deliver today.
So don’t rest on your laurels and regal in tales of past glories. The best days are still ahead of you. Remember … you want to be a choice, not an obligation.
Becoming a choice is not easy. You have to work hard and bust your ass to get there. To take advantage of the opportunities presented to you. To romance ways to bring something different to the table. To challenge yourself to over deliver.
But it’s worth it. Because when you become a choice, you stand out. And once you create the version of yourself where one employer chooses you, you can sure as hell bet that other opportunities will be lining up around the block.
here’s the thing that makes life so interesting.
the theory of evolution claims only the strong shall survive.
maybe so. maybe so.
the theory of competition says that just because THEY’RE the strong,
doesn’t mean they can’t get their asses kicked.
that’s right.
see, what every long shot come-from-behind underdog will tell you is this:
the other guy may in fact be the favourite.
the odds may be stacked against you, fair enough.
but what the odds don’t know is that this isn’t a math test.
this is a completely different kind of test.
one where passion has a funny way of trumping logic.
So before you step up to the starting line
Before the whistle blows and the clock starts ticking,
Just remember out here the results don’t always add up.
No matter what the stats may say,
and the experts may think
and the commentators may have predicted
When the race is on, all bets are off.
don’t be surprised if someone decides to flip the script
and take a pass on yelling “uncle”
and then suddenly as the old saying goes,
we got ourselves a game.
This was originally an ad for the Versus Channel in the US, but it was repurposed by Weiden & Kennedy for Nike. All I have to say about it is that it’s fucking awesome! I love it when advertising can inspire. Have a good weekend. Do something worth remembering.
