Book Summary: Show your Work
10 Ways to Share Your Creativity and Get Discovered — by AUSTIN KLEON
The book starts with a quote:
“Creativity is not a talent. It is a way of operating.” — John Cleese
Everyone talks about being so good that they can’t ignore you, but it's not enough to be good, you have to be findable. You have to put your work out there and make it discoverable while you’re focused on getting really good at what you do. Build sharing into a routine. Instead of wasting your time “Networking”, take advantage of the network.
Imagine if your next boss didn’t have to read your resume because he already reads your blog.
Find a Scenius
“Give what you have. To someone, it may be better than you dare to think.” — Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
There is nothing like “lone genius”, it’s a myth that an individual appears with superhuman talents appears out of nowhere at certain points in history, free of influences or precedent, with a direct connection to God or The Muse.
There’s a healthier way of thinking about creativity that the musician Brian Eno refers to as “scenius.” Under this model, great ideas are often birthed by a group of creative individuals — artists, curators, thinkers, theorists, and other tastemakers — who make up an “ecology of talent.”
If you look back in history many people who we think are lone genius were actually part of “a whole scene of people who were supporting each other, looking at each other’s work, copying from each other, stealing ideas, and contributing ideas.”
creativity is always, in some sense, a collaboration, the result of a mind connected to other minds.
You need to stop asking what others can do for us, and start asking what you can do for others.
INTERNET is basically a bunch of scenius connected together. Online, everyone — the artist and the curator, the master and the apprentice, the expert and the amateur — has the ability to contribute something.
Be an Amateur
“That’s all any of us are: amateurs. We don’t live long enough to be anything else.”
— Charlie Chaplin
We’re all terrified of being revealed as amateurs, but in fact, today it is the amateur — the enthusiast who pursues her work in the spirit of love, regardless of the potential for fame, money, or career — who often has the advantage over the professional.
Amateurs are willing to try anything and share the results. “In the beginner’s mind, there are many possibilities,” said Zen monk Shunryu Suzuki. “In the expert’s mind, there are few.”
Amateurs are not afraid to make mistakes or look ridiculous in public. Mediocrity is, however, still on the spectrum; you can move from mediocre to good in increments. The real gap is between doing nothing and doing something.” Amateurs know that contributing something is better than contributing nothing.
The world is changing at such a rapid rate that it’s turning us all into amateurs.
This is yet another trait of amateurs — they’ll use whatever tools they can get their hands on to try to get their ideas into the world.
The best way to get started on the path to sharing your work is to think about what you want to learn, and make a commitment to learning it in front of others.
Share what you love, and the people who love the same things will find you.
You can’t find your voice, if you don’t use it.
“Find your voice, shout it from the rooftops, and keep doing it until the people that are looking for you find you.” — Dan Harmon
We’re always told to use our voice, but do you know how to use it? The only way to find your voice is to use it. It’s hardwired, built into you. Talk about the things you love. Your voice will follow.
It sounds a little extreme, but in this day and age, if your work isn’t online, it doesn’t exist.
If you want people to know about what you do and the things you care about, you have to share.
Read Obituaries
“Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure — these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. 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.” — Steve Jobs
We think obituaries are about death, in fact, they’re about life. Thinking about death will make you want to live a more meaningful life.
Try it: Start reading the obituaries every morning. Take inspiration from the people who muddled through life before you — they all started out as amateurs, and they got where they were going by making do with what they were given, and having the guts to put themselves out there. Follow their example.
Take People Behind the Scene
“A lot of people are so used to just seeing the outcome of work. They never see the side of the work you go through to produce the outcome.” — Michael Jackson
To all viewers but yourself what matters is the product; to you and you alone, what matters is the process.
Become a Documentarian of What You Do
“In order for connection to happen, we have to allow ourselves to be seen — really seen.” — Brené Brown
You may think that you have nothing to show as the nature of our work is not artistic and no one may be interested in what you do; but to be honest, whatever you do, there is an art to what you do, and there are people who would be interested in that art, if only you presented it to them in the right way.
In fact, sharing your process might actually be most valuable if the products of your work aren’t easily shared.
The first step to show your work even you have nothing to show is to scoop up the scraps and residue of your process and shape them into some interesting bit of media that you can share.
“You have to make stuff,” said journalist David Carr when he was asked if he had any advice for students. “No one is going to give a damn about your résumé; they want to see what you have made with your own little fingers.”
Become a documentarian of what you do. Start a work journal: Write your thoughts down in a notebook, or speak them into an audio recorder. Keep a scrapbook. Take a lot of photographs of your work at different stages in your process. Shoot a video of you working. This isn’t about making art, it’s about simply keeping track of what’s going on around you. Take advantage of all the cheap, easy tools at your disposal — these days, most of us carry a fully functional multimedia studio around in our smartphones.
Whether you share it or not, documenting and recording your process as you go along has its own rewards: You’ll start to see the work you’re doing more clearly and feel like you’re making progress.
Send Out A Daily Dispatch
“Put yourself, and your work, out there every day, and you’ll start meeting some amazing people.” — Bobby Solomon
Overnight success is a myth. Dig into almost every overnight success story and you’ll find about a decade’s worth of hard work and perseverance. Once a day, after you’ve done your day’s work, go back to your documentation and find one little piece of your process that you can share.
A daily dispatch is even better than a résumé or a portfolio, because it shows what we’re working on right now.
The form of what you share doesn’t matter. Your daily dispatch can be anything you want — a blog post, an email, a tweet, a YouTube video, or some other little bit of media. There’s no one-size-fits-all plan for everybody.
“Make no mistake: This is not your diary. You are not letting it all hang out. You are picking and choosing every single word.” — Dani Shapiro
Make sure you don’t share something which you are not comfortable with your Boss or mother seeing.
Turn Your Flow into Stock
“If you work on something a little bit every day, you end up with something that is massive.” — Kenneth Goldsmith
Flow is the feed like posts and tweets which are like daily and sub-daily updates that remind people that you exist.
Stock is the durable stuff, the content you produce that’s as interesting in two months (or two years) as it is today. It’s what spreads slowly but surely.
The magic formula is to maintain your flow while working on your stock in the background.
Social Media sites function a lot like Public Notebooks — they’re places where we think out loud, let other people think back at us, then hopefully think some more.
When you start sharing part of your daily routine, you’ll notice themes and trends in what you share and from there you’ll find patterns in your flow.
Example: A lot of ideas in this book started out as tweets, which then become blog posts, which then became book chapters. Small things, over time, can get big.
“Carving out a space for yourself online, somewhere where you can express yourself and share your work, is still one of the best possible investments you can make with your time.” — Andy Baio
Social Networks are great, but they come and go. Nothing beats owning your own space online, a place that you control, a world headquarter where people can always find you.
Don’t think of your website as a self-promotion machine, think of it as a self-invention machine.
Fill your website with your work and your ideas and the stuff you care about.
Whether people show up or they don’t, you’re out there, doing your thing, ready whenever they are.
Don’t be a Hoarder
“The problem with hoarding is you end up living off your reserves. Eventually, you’ll become stale. If you give away everything you have, you are left with nothing. This forces you to look, to be aware, to replenish. . . . Somehow the more you give away, the more comes back to you.” — Paul Arden
You should share what influences you because they clue people into who you are and what you do — sometimes even more than your own work.
“I don’t believe in guilty pleasures. If you f — -ing like something, like it.” — Dave Grohl
We all love things that other people think are garbage. You have to have the courage to keep loving your garbage because that’s what makes us unique.
When you find things you genuinely enjoy, don’t let anyone else make you feel bad about it. Don’t feel guilty about the pleasure you take in the things you enjoy. Celebrate them. When you share your taste and your influences, have the guts to own all of it. Don’t give in to the pressure to self-edit too much.
“Do what you do best and link to the rest.” — Jeff Jarvis
If you plan to share the work of others make sure to treat with respect and care and do not forget to give proper credit.
Work Doesn’t speak for itself
“Stories are such a powerful driver of emotional value that their effect on any given object’s subjective value can actually be measured objectively.”
The stories we tell about the work we do have a huge effect on how people feel and what they understand about our work, and how people feel and what they understand about our work affects how they value it.
If you want to be more effective when sharing yourself and your work, you need to become a better storyteller. You need to know what a good story is and how to tell one.
Structure is Everything
A story had a beginning, a middle, and an end.
A good pitch is set up in three acts: The first act is the past, the second act is the present, and the third act is the future.
Always keep your audience in mind. Speech to them in direct plain language. Be brief. Learn to speak. Learn to write.
Remember, your stories will get better the more you tell them.
Talk about yourself at parties
“You got to make your case.” — Kanye West
Tell a good story about what you do honestly, with dignity and respect.
Strike all adjectives from your bio.
“Whatever we say, we’re always talking about ourselves.” — Alison Bechdel
The impulse to keep to yourself what you have learned is not only shameful, it is destructive. Anything you do not give freely and abundantly becomes lost to you. You open your safe and find ashes. -Annie Dillard
The minute you learn something, turn around and teach it to the others. Create some tutorials and part then online. User pictures, words and video.
When you teach someone how to do your work, you are, in effect, generating more interest in your work. People feel closer to your work because you’re letting them in what you know.
Shut up and Listen
When people realize they’re being listened to, then tell you things. — Richard Ford
People who don’t want to pay their dues, want their piece right here, right now, who don’t want to listen to your ideas but want to tell them theirs are called human Spammers.
Is you’re only pointing to your own stuff online, you’re doing it wrong. You have to be a connector.
If your want to get, you have to give. If you want to be noticed, you have to get. If you want to be noticed, you have to notice. Shut up & Listen once in a while.
You want Hearts, not Eyeballs
Stop worrying about how many people follow you online and start worrying about the quality of people who follow you.
If you want followers, be someone worth following. Tried making yourself a more interesting person. If you want to be interesting, you have to be interested.
Make stuff you love and talk about stuff you love and you’ll attract people who love that kind of stuff. It’s that simple
Don’t ever ask people to follow you “follow you back?”
The Vampire Test
Whatever excites you, go do it. Whatever drains you, stop doing it.
Do not waste your life energy on something which you don’t love doing.
If after hanging out with someone you feel worn out and depleted, that person is a vampire. The same test can work for jobs, hobbies, places and not just people.
Meet up in MEATSPACE
You and I will be around a lot longer than Twitter, and nothing substitutes face to face. -Rob Delaney
Meeting people online is awesome, but turning them into IRL (IRL = in real life) friends is even better.
Let ’em Take Their Best Shot
“I ain’t going to give up. Every time you think I’m one place, I’m going to show up someplace else. I come pre-hated. Take your best shot.” — Cyndi Lauper
When you put your work out into the world, you have to be ready for the good, the bad and the ugly. The more people come across your work, the more criticism you’ll face.
“The trick is not caring what EVERYBODY thinks of you and just caring about what the RIGHT people think of you.” — Brian Michael Bendis
Don’t Feed the Trolls
A troll is a person who isn’t interested in improving your work, only provoking you with hateful, aggressive or upsetting talk. You will gain nothing by engaging with these people. Don’t feed them and they will usually go away.
The worst troll is the one that lives in your head. It’s the voice in your head that tells you that you are not good enough, that you suck and you’ll never amount to anything.
Even the Renaissance Had to be Funded
People need to eat and pay the rent.
We all have to get over our “starving artist” romanticism and the idea that touching money inherently corrupts creativity.
Pass Around the Hat
“I’d love to sell out completely. It’s just that nobody has been willing to buy.” — John Waters
When an audience starts gathering for the work that you’re freely putting into the world, you might eventually take the leap of turning them into patrons.
Don’t hesitate to ask for donations, or giving it a human touch like “Like this? Buy me a coffee.”
Be open about your process, connect with audience, and ask them to support you by buying things you like selling. The idea is to be open and upfront and in this process do not hesitate to ask for crowdfunding.
Don’t be afraid to charge for your work, but put a price on it that you think is fair.
Keep a Mailing List
Keep collecting email addresses from people who come across your Work and want to stay in touch, even if you don’t have anything to sell right now.
Get an account with newsletter company like MailChimp and put a sign up widget on every page of your website. Be clear what they can expect.
People who sign up for your list will be your biggest supporters. Don’t betray their trust and don’t push your luck. Bulls tour List and Test it with respect. It will come in handy.
Make More Work for Yourself
“We don’t make movies to make money, we make money to make more movies. “ — Walt Disney
What matters the most is doing good work and taking advantage of every opportunity that comes your way.
A life of creativity is all about change — moving forward, taking chances, exploring new frontiers.
Be Ambitious. Keep yourself busy. Think bigger. Expand your audience. Try new things.
Look for the opportunities that will allow you to do more of the kind of work you want to do.
Pay it Forward
When you have success, help along the work of the people who’ve helped you get to where you are. Provide an opportunity to your Teachers, Mentors, Heroes, influencers, peers, and your fans.
You just have to be as generous as you can, but selfish enough to get your work done.
Don’t Quit Your Show
The people who get what they’re after are often the ones who just stick around long enough. It’s very important not to quit prematurely.
Whatever you do, don’t quit your show.
Work is never finished, only abandoned — Paul Valery
You can’t count on success; you can only leave open the possibility for it, and be ready to jump on and take the ride when it comes to you.
“We work because it’s a chain reaction, each subject leads to the next” — Charles Eames
Go Away so you can Come Back
“The minute you stop wanting something you get it.” — Andy Warhol
Three prime spots to turn off brains and to recharge and inspired again:
Commute: A moving train or subway car is the perfect time to write, doodle, read or just stare out of the window.
Exercise: Using our body relaxes our mind, and when mind gets relaxed, it opens to having new thoughts.
Nature: Go to a part, take a hike. Dig in your garden. Get outside in the fresh air. Disconnect from anything and everything electronic.
S̶t̶a̶r̶t̶ ̶O̶v̶e̶r̶ Begin Again
“Whenever Picasso learned how to do something, he abandoned it.”. — Milton Glaser.
Push yourself to be a lifelong learner.
“Anyone who isn’t embarrassed of who they were last year probably isn’t learning enough”
You have to have the courage to get rid of work and rethink things completely.
The thing is, you never really start over. You don’t lose all the work that’s come before. Even if you try to toss it aside, the lessons that you’ve learned from it will seep into what you do next.
Become an amateur!
Look for something new and when you find it, dedicate yourself to learning it out in the open. Document your progress and share as you go so that others can learn along with you.
Show your work, and when the right people show up, pay close attention to them, because they’ll have a lot to show you.
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