Category: Creator Confidential
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In praise of the obvious
When you’re playing a word game like Scrabble, it helps to move your letters around. Just a simple shuffle of the same letters will show you combinations that your brain couldn’t see before. There’s a similar case to be made for writing about something that seems obvious. Even if the idea or story is the…
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One with the people
Even if you come up with the most brilliant business, product, or creative idea, you’ll be limited by how well you can connect it with the people who get value out of it. You don’t just magically find these connections (and ideas!). You discover it through spending time with people and listening to what they’re…
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I wrote every day for 365 days. Here are my results and 5 insights
In February 2022, I started #the100dayproject with the goal of writing a new blog post every day. (Here’s post #1.) Day 100 came, and I didn’t stop. I was having way too much fun. I’ve since written 110,126 words, enough to fill two nonfiction books. Over 88,106 people have visited my website. I’ve often been…
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Interviewing experts to learn
I recently appeared at Rich Armstrong’s Twitter Spaces, and the topic of meeting other people (“networking”) came up (1:06:35). It reminded me of a draft for career advice that I pitched Forge (it was just sitting around, and this was an opening to unstick it). When I was a junior in college, I was at…
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“Evolve or Die”
“Evolve or die” is one of the mottos in 50 Cent’s Hustle Harder, Hustle Smarter. He discusses his own adherence to the principle: When he put out new music in 2009, it still topped the charts, but he noticed the crowds at live shows weren’t responding to it as they used to. He observed that…
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Democratized gatekeeping (redux)
When I wrote about democratized gatekeeping, I meant to include this link to Ryan Leslie describing his early videos on YouTube. He says: “Traditional channels of distribution, they seemed as though they had quite a few barriers. As much as I felt like I was talented enough that I could have my own MTV special,…
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Put your name on it
It’s easy to hide behind a business name, a perception of mystique, or an obscure pseudonym. There are great advantages to this. One disadvantage is, if you don’t talk about yourself, you don’t end up actually putting yourself out there. You can’t bet on yourself, because you didn’t even make your bet yet. (Paraphrasing something…
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Practice vs. perfection
If you’re wondering if you should’ve signed that email off differently, or worried that you didn’t convey a certain detail the ideal way, or if this is your only shot at something, you’re missing the bigger picture. When the stakes feel too high, something is off. Perfection shouldn’t be the expectation for a positive outcome. …
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Democratized gatekeeping
“When I started, I couldn’t beg a fashion writer to write about my project. But with Instagram, I took an open-source tool and made it my magazine. I once said to Kevin [Systrom, Instagram co-founder], ‘You made it possible for me to have a fashion brand without using the traditional system.’” Virgil Abloh’s words, via…
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Misunderstanding
It’s almost always worth giving someone else the benefit of the doubt. The experience of rejection, whether it’s as simple as a request to reschedule, or a long overdue response, can be a deceptive moment. Then there’s the bigger stuff: declined invitations or applications, missed weddings, missed connections in travelling. There’s no hint here; just…