For centuries, historians believed the great Renaissance master was just another Starving Artist, struggling to make ends meet. Michelangelo himself embraced this image, living frugally and often complaining about money. He once wrote in a poem that his art had left him “poor, old and working as a servant of others.”
But it turns out he wasn’t telling the truth.
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Do you remember when you started it, this thing you now call your craft? Do you remember when you did it because you loved it, because you couldn’t stop doing it? I don’t. But I’d like to remember. I’d love to go back to being an amateur, if I still can.
Is your work timely or timeless? That is, is it something that is relevant to your current place in history, or does it transcend the limitations of its context? You may be thinking that the goal of every artist is to do work that lasts, but this is a myth.
It’s one thing to call yourself a writer; it’s quite another to actually write. So what separates the pros from the amateurs? Is it God-given talent? Natural skill? Or something else?
Of course, we all have gifts that we’ve been given. This is grace, the fact that we have things we are good at — and don’t deserve them. But what we do with those gifts is what separates the outliers from the rest of the pack.
Has a really good story every moved you to feel or to act? That is the true art of storytelling. Someone who knows this well and has honed this art is Scott Harrison of charity: water. Scott got into storytelling when he moved to NYC at 18. Initially, he rebelled against his upbringing and moved […]
It was late that night as I sat on my friend Ian’s porch and poured out my heart. What I had to share, though, I hadn’t told anybody, and it had been eating me up inside for a few years now. It was time somebody knew.
This is the year you become a writer. And what do writers do? They write.
There’s nothing mystical or magical about it — you just have to show up and commit to doing the work. Place butt in chair, fingers on keys, and start typing.
And this, of course, is where most writers fail. They never actually write a word. They talk about writing, think about writing, even read about writing. But they do not write.
I’ve recently started a gratitude journal, in which I write 5 things I’m grateful for. Today, I’m reflecting on the Tribe Conference I attended this year
For the longest time, I despised marketing. Couldn’t stand it. It just felt like pure dishonesty. I felt this way long before ever becoming a writer. Little did I know that just about everything I did was marketing.
How does inspiration happen? Where does it come from? Do we wait for it to come or simply get to work? And how does one go about capturing such a thing? Most importantly, how does a writer actually write?
There’s plenty of advice in the entrepreneurial community on habits. But what are atomic habits and how can you take the reins on creating atomic habits of your own? And why would you want to? The man to answer those questions is my friend, James Clear.
Bestselling author and creativity expert Jeff Goins dismantles the myth that being creative is a hindrance to success by revealing how an artistic temperament is, in fact, a competitive advantage in the marketplace.
For centuries, the myth of the starving artist has dominated our culture, seeping into the minds of creative people and stifling their pursuits. But the truth is that the world’s most successful artists did not starve. In fact, they capitalized on the power of their creative strength. In Real Artists Don’t Starve, Jeff Goins debunks the myth of the starving artist by unveiling the ideas that created it and replacing them with fourteen rules for artists to thrive.
