Category: Creator Confidential
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“What if grinding is bad?”
A coach asked me this question in my late 20s. It was mind-blowing. At the time, I’d already read Trying Not to Try, and I was still soaking things in and slowly shifting my worldview. This question really accelerated the process. Some questions that counter-grinding question provoked: Wasn’t everything supposed to be a grind? If…
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Make a habit of sharing other people’s work
One of the scariest things about promoting your own work is the fundamental reality that nobody else cares. It’s not a personal attack on the worth of you or your work; it’s just that people are living their own lives. They experience their own thoughts, curiosities, and challenges. You may know this in theory, but…
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Self-worth and dreams
It’s easy to buy into the idea that you can’t be happy until you’ve achieved your goal. Your dream, your personal calling, whatever you want to call it. The reality is, that we don’t control how things turn out after we do something. We only control our effort. Most dreams stay dreams, and we often…
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Focus on the work
I really like this excerpt from an interview with cinematographer Brad Rushing: I do try and keep faith in myself and honestly, when I do have crises with the system or success, a nebulous thing, I really get basic. I go back and remind, “Brad, you’re an artist. That was the contract you made. You…
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How to write about failures
People like a winning image. I believe this, and I see examples of it every day. I feel it too. I don’t like pity parties, sadness, or discouragement; I’m drawn to hope, encouragement, and excitement. I used to think that this meant people wouldn’t want to read about anything except the W’s. By extension, that…
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Notes on Axios’s business strategy with Axios HQ
I’ve been following Axios HQ with keen interest from afar for a little over a year now (I’m not associated with it). For the unfamiliar, Axios HQ is one of media company Axios’s big bets to work with enterprise customers on internal communications. The driving through line behind it is the term, “smart brevity,” which…
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Insights from the idiot
A few days ago, I wrote about the four inner beings of a writer. Susan Sontag called these the nut (i.e., the obsédé), the moron, the stylist, and the critic. Professor Betty Flowers called these the madman, the architect, the carpenter, and the judge. I started this blog with the intention that it served as…
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Creative Doing, at Sharpen Your Edge
I recently joined my friend Dr. Greg Wells at his podcast, Sharpen Your Edge. It usually airs at LinkedIn on Thursdays at noon et, you can catch this one at YouTube: One of the themes we talk about is how creativity is innate and every person is creative; indeed, many of us draw in school,…
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Tradeoffs
Annie Duke writes in Thinking in Bets, “The quality of our lives is the sum of decision quality plus luck.” Indeed, everything is about choices. Often, these choices may appear as A, or B? Should I dedicate my life to what makes me money, or what I feel passionate about? Should I be active at…
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Dan Crowe, on starting Port Magazine
I’m in the middle of developing a speech for Creative Doing right now, and the research process led me to revisit an interview I did with Dan Crowe (who most recently launched INQUE magazine) a few years ago. A few excerpts from Dan that I really loved: “My friends and I that launched [Port], we…