On Writing, Ideas, and Making a Difference
Last weekend, I spoke at a conference, and everything went wrong. I brought the wrong video adapter for my computer, had poor lighting (which prevented people from seeing me), and didn’t have a microphone for the first part of my talk.
I felt embarrassed, discouraged, and frustrated. I had something wonderful prepared, and the audience didn’t get to see it. I powered through the speech, and then hightailed it to the parking lot.
My wife texted me, asking how it went. I told her, “It sucked.”
I just pinned this quote by yours truly on Pinterest. It was inspired by a recent newsletter I sent to my list. (By the way, if you’re not on my newsletter list, you should be — it’s free. Sign up here.)
If you’re not familiar with Pinterest, it’s a social network where people (mostly women) share ideas, art, and other content through images arranged on various “boards.”
We all want breakthrough. We want to be epic. To leave a dent in the universe.
But there is always a cost to success. There is something gained and something lost. I hate to state the obvious, but…
In order for a breakthrough to happen, something has to break.
Over a year ago, I was invited to a friend’s house. This friend is a creative arts teacher and was preparing one of her first big presentations. She wanted to test it on a couple of friends, and I was one of the guinea pigs.
The evening was designed to explore creativity and our artistic sides. Now, by no means am I a world-class drawer or painter — my creative gift has always involved words — but I decided to give it a go, anyway.
The other week was hard. Late nights, tight deadlines, and little sleep. To top it off, I lost my wallet, misplaced my license, and was subjected to Babies-R-Us for an entire hour.
As the birth of a book (and child) fast approaches, I assume this frenetic lifestyle will only get worse. It makes me wonder how much more struggling I can take.
It happens to the best of us. Eventually, we all get stuck or stymied. Even the brightest among us falters or fails.
The real winners at life are those who learn to accept the ebbs and flows and roll with the punches — those who persevere anyway. But this can be hard.
Working in a creative field and only reading nonfiction is like training for a marathon by doing pushups and curls. You’ve got to work out the creative part of your brain.
It’s not that nonfiction can’t do that; it’s just that fiction does a better job of it. Here’s why…
Everyone wants to be extraordinary, but no one wants to be unpopular. Everyone wants to be a genius, but no one wants to be called a nerd. Everyone wants to be outstanding, but no one’s willing to stand out.
Earning the attention you deserve will be the hardest, scariest, most grueling thing you do. But it will also be the most rewarding.
Last week, I had a phone conversation with Charles Lee. Charles is the founder of Ideation, a creative consulting agency, and author of the book Good Idea. Now What? (which just came out this week).
As we were talking, I realized this was really good stuff for writers, creatives, and others who read this blog.
So I asked Charles some questions. Here’s my interview with him…
Everyone, it seems, is trying to reach creatives — that special breed of worker who, until recently, was a misfit. But now, that’s all changed.
Today, there is a growing market of information and products for those gifted at seeing the world differently. There are books and seminars and programs geared towards explaining and aiding the creative process.
If you’re an artist, your skills have never been in as high of a demand as they are now. There’s just one problem…
