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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So you’re stuck at home, wondering what to do with your life right now. Share another meme on Instagram? Nope. It’s time to write that book you’ve always wanted to write.
Is it an act of bravery to merely survive a crisis? Maybe. But if you have the potential to be remarkable, why wouldn’t you be? Now is the time to give your greatest gift to the world.
“What did you do with this crisis?” This may be what our children ask us about this time. And as you’ll see, a crisis is an opportunity to create something new.
We don’t need you to write a book. We don’t need another story on cancer survival or escaping an abusive childhood or overcoming addiction. We don’t need another seven steps or five hacks or twelve rules for life. Sorry. We just don’t. We need your respect for the craft and your audience. We need you to bring all of you to the table and share your message with a willingness to believe it before anyone else does. We need a voice worthy of our trust.
This week, my first ghostwriting project, The Successful Speaker, comes out. This was a collaboration with Grant Baldwin, the leading expert on what it takes to build a successful speaking business. It was a lot of fun, but what I didn’t expect was how much it would make me a better speaker.
I tend to think of life as a journey these days far more than a destination. If I could summarize what I believe about almost everything in life, it would be this: Clarity comes with action.
“Why do we need art?” In a world that seems to more and more focused on “work works,” is there still a place for beauty? Do artists matter anymore? I think they do.
There are three messages creativity can communicate, and these messages are what connect us as human beings. Which is to say, without the arts—without the ability to creatively express who we are and what we care about—we lose a bit of our humanity.
In this episode of The Portfolio Life, I talk with Chase Jarvis, a brilliant photographer, entrepreneur, author, thinker. We have a fantastic conversation about creativity, the arts, and the business world and why we need you to do your art, why we need you to make things more than we ever have before, and why we need the world to care about art and creativity.
Whether you’re bored, out of work, or simply wanting a more fulfilling career, I believe that by embracing a portfolio life, you will finally have the peace and contentment you seek in your work.
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.
