The Guidebook
Principals To Live Ones Creative Career By
1. Humility & Hustle
If you love what you do working hard is natural, you want to work, grow and develop your skills because you are doing what you love. Where the challenge comes is when we hit creative road blocks and don’t feel like working.Then it is up to us to power through and really hustle, to suck it up and just do it because we are designing a life for ourself through our work, and we won’t just get lucky we have to work for it.
Even as you see yourself grow and achieve your goals, always stay humble. There is nothing worse than some cocky motherfucker blabbing about how good they are. It leaves a bad taste in our mouths and often causes us to lose respect for that person. Never forget where you came from or lose sight what is truly important. There is always someone better than you, you are not the best and you never will be. But you can sure as hell try to be. Get humble or Get Humbled.
2. Have Big Balls
I mean metaphorically. Go big or go home. Create each project like its your last, because it might be. Work begets work. You are only as good as your last project. So get after it.
3. Don’t Follow the Crowd
Don’t regurgitate what you see online on sites like Behance, Dribbble, or Pinterest. Reach down inside yourself to come up with creative solutions, tailor-made to the needs of the client and not for your own desires.
4. Failure is Not a Negative.
Every failure is a learning opportunity. Failure is not fatale. For starters, it can be a motivator. “Smooth sailing isn’t always the best way to convince yourself to put your nose back to the grindstone. Struggle and frustration and fear can be great tools for learning to focus and recharge yourself ” some wise words from Questlove’s book Mo Meta Blues.
“Creative failures can feel like near-death experiences, and surviving them can create a sense of liberation.” – Questlove
5. Nothing is Given Everything is Earned.
Never expect things to happen for you. You make your own luck and opportunities. Build a door for yourself so you can walk through it.
“I find the harder I work the luckier I get.” –Thomas Jefferson
6. Don’t Give Up What You Love
Never give up your hobbies and interests they are defining characteristics about you. People chose to work with you not only for your work but because of who you are as person. Your attitude, personality, and knowledge are the other 50% in the hiring equation. So show your attitude, share what you are interested in, and finds was where it be integrated into conversations with clients, or distilled down into side hustles.
7. Busy is Not an Excuse
We are all busy, but being doesn’t mean that you get an excuse. We make time for what is important to us, by saying you are too busy to do something you are really saying that it is not important enough to invest your time into. https://open.spotify.com/episode/68yE0JJtAdy1ugZICvhlXA?si=SX9qqVhGScqJdQzQjNaSkg
“Busy is a decision” –Debbie Millman
8. Listen and Learn From Everyone
Don’t think that you can only learn from people in the creative industry. There are lessons and value to be learned from professionals in any industry. Read books or listen to podcasts and gain a new perspective on things.
9. If It’s Not a Hell Yes, It’s a Hell No.
If you aren’t convinced within 1 minute after reading an email, getting off the phone, or meeting that, that project or opportunity is right for you then it is wrong for you. Always trust your gut with your decisions. If you are making a pro and con list you are convincing yourself into the wrong decision. Trust your primal nature and go with your gut. If you answer is not a hell yes, it’s a hell no! — Scotty Russell of Perspective Collective
10. There Are No Rules
This is self explanatory. Any advice or rules you have ever been given are just talk. It is up to you to determine whether or not to follow them. Make your own path and adapt what works for you and your needs.
