Notes & Quotes – Show Your Work
Notes & Quotes by Nick Hendrix from the book Show Your Work, by Austin Kleon
How to read Notes & Quotes:
This is a five-minute review of an amazing book with real life application. Zip through find value and put it into practice! Pass it on and share it, feel free to credit anyone and everyone listed here. Hope you find some great nuggets, and continue to show your work!
Thought Leaders Who Inspire:
I hope you find some great value from the notes below. I certainly gained a ton of inspiration and great ideas from reading this book. It wouldn’t have ever happened to me if I didn’t have great thought leaders in my life, sharing resources like it with me. The thought leader who gave me this one is Audrey Moralez. Check her out at www.AudreyMoralez.com and see what having a thought leader in your life can do for you. My favorite quote comes from her:
“Great content comes from great living. You can’t write big thoughts when you’re living small.” – Audrey Moralez
-Nick Hendrix
Wisdom from Show Your Work, by Austin Kleon
DON’T BE A GENIUS
Give what you have to someone it may be better than you dare to think. Henry W. Longfellow
Find a “Scenius”: great ideas are often birthed by a group of creative individuals-artists curators thinkers theorists and other taste-makers.
Creativity is not born in a vacuum and is always in some sense a collaboration (a result of a mind connected to other minds)
BE AN AMATEUR:
“That’s all any of us are: amateurs. We don’t live long enough to be anything else.” – Charlie Chaplin
Quick Fact: “The Amateur” is someone who does something for the love of it – regardless of the potential for fame, money or career. The amateur often has the advantage over the professional. Because they have little to lose, will try anything, and will share their results.
“In the beginners mind there are many possibilities. In the experts mind, there are few.” – Zen monk Shunryu Suzuki
What We Can Control: In his book Cognitive Surplus, author Clay Chirky claims “The stupidest possible creative act is still a creative act. On the spectrum of creative work, the difference between the mediocre and the good is VAST. 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.” I love this because it points to the fact that we cannot truly control the result of our work, but we can fully control the effort and choice to ACT.
THINK OUT LOUD ABOUT THINGS YOU ARE OBSESSED WITH:
Raw enthusiasm is contagious. Bernard Summer, front man for English Rock Band New Order, said “I saw the Sex Pistols perform and they were terrible…I wanted to get up and be terrible with them.” If you do it right, your obsession has value before you perfect the way you use it.
Commit to Share: 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. Find scenes, pay attention to what others are sharing, and then start talking note of what they are NOT SHARING. Be on the lookout for voids that you can fill with your own efforts – no matter how bad your efforts seem at first. Forget about being a professional for now. Wear your amateurism (your heart and your love) on your sleeve. Share your love and the people who love the same things will find you.
“Find your voice, should it from the rooftops and keep doing it until the people that are looking for you find you.” – Dan Harmon
“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
BECOME A DOCUMENTARIAN:
Kleon says we should record what we are DOING – and SHARE SOMETHING SMALL EVERY (DAMN) DAY.
At the end of the day go back over what you have documented and find a piece of your process you can share. Science fiction author Theodore Sturgeon is known to say “90% of everything is crap.” So make sure you produce enough in a day to have something left after you “cut the crap.”
Social Media Challenge: Show your WORK, not just your lunch, your latte, family pictures, or pet antics. (Note from Nick personally – share the fun too, just don’t leave the work off of your social media.)
Stock and Flow: Stock is good stuff you work on in the background that lasts. Flow is the continual posts and stuff that keeps you relevant.
Tell Good Stories: Artists (and professionals in most industries) like to say “My work speaks for itself.” But the truth is, our work DOESN’T speak for itself. Words and stories give meaning and significance to your work. Paul Bloom, professor of psychology said “When shown an object or given a food or shown a face, people’s assessment of it – how much they like it, how valuable it is – is deeply affected by what you tell them about it.”
“’The cat sat on a mat’, is not a story. ‘The cat sat on the dog’s mat’ is a story.” John le Carré
“Autobiography is only to be trusted when it reveals something disgraceful.” George Orwell
TEACH WHAT YOU KNOW
Teach -> Learn ->Teach -> Learn
Don’t Turn into Human Spam:
The people who write but don’t read, the ones who promote yet never attend, the people who do not listen, because they want to tell you about their idea, story, business are HUMAN SPAMMERS. There are human spammers in every industry. They are on the opposite end of the spectrum from what Kleon calls “information hoarders.”
“When people realize they are being listened to they tell you things” – Richard Ford
Successful people are not just looking for fans or passive consumers of their work they are looking for potential collaborators or co-conspirators. The experience of art is always a two way street incomplete without feedback. If you want fans you must first be a fan.
Story Highight: Producer Adrian Younge was on twitter asking his followers “Who is better: The Dramatics or the Delfonics?” Interacting with his people got him connected to William Hart, the lead singer of the Delfonics. Adrian and William ended up having an insane connection and produced the album Adrian Younge Presents The Delfonics. That’s what happens when artists interact with their fans on the level of a fan themselves.
YOU WANT HEARTS NOT EYEBALLS – BE A FAN.
Being a fan is the only way to truly attract the right fans.
It’s actually true that life is all about Who You Know. But who you know is largely dependent on WHO YOU ARE and WHAT YOU DO. Not to mention that the people you know can’t do anything for you if you’re not doing good work. “Connections don’t mean shit,” says record producer Steve Albini. “I have never had any connections that weren’t a natural outgrowth of doing things I was doing anyway.” Albanian laments how many people waste time and energy trying to make connections instead of getting good at what they do when” being good at things is the only thing that earns you clout or connections.”
Make stuff you love and talk about stuff you love and you’ll attract people who love that kind of stuff. Its simple.
Challenge: FOLLOW ME BACK is the saddest question on the internet!
Identify your fellow “Knuckleballers”: As you put yourself and work out there you will run into your fellow “knuckleballers.” These are your real peers – the people who share you obsessions, the people who share a similar mission to your own, the people with whom you share a mutual respect. There will only be a handful. Collaborate with them, share with them first, and sing their praises to the universe. Keep them as close as you can.
LEARN TO TAKE A PUNCH
The Best Ways to Take the Punch:
- Relax and Breathe: As far as I know no one has actually died from a bad review.
- Strengthen Your Neck: Put out a lot of work take a lot of feedback. You will realize criticism can’t hurt you.
- Roll With The Punches: Sometime being hated is a good thing. Keep pushing the envelope.
- Protect Your Vulnerable Areas: If something is to sensitive to stand up to a bunch of criticism, keep it hidden; but remember, “Compulsive avoidance of embarrassment is a form of suicide.” – Colin Marshall.
- Keep your Balance: Remember your work is something you do, not who you are. Keep close to family and friends who love you for you, not just your work.
DON’T FEED THE TROLLS:
Size up who the feedback is from. You want feed back from people who care about you and what you do. Trolls are people who is isn’t interested in improving your work, just spreading criticism etc provoking you with aggressive and upsetting talk
“The trick is not caring what what EVERYBODY thinks of you, and just caring about what the RIGHT people think of you.” – Brian Michael Bendis
SELL OUT:
Making money does not decrease the value of the art or work you do.
Don’t Be This Guy: “An amateur is an artist who supports himself with outside jobs which enable him to paint. A professional is someone whose wife works to enable him to paint.” – artist Ben Shahn
Pass the Hat Around: Give people simple easy ways to support you! Musician Amanda Palmer is great at turning her audience into patrons: After showing her work and sharing her music freely she asked her fans to donate $100,000 to help fund her next studio album. She made it simple, and ended up raising over 1 million dollars.
Business Tip: Keep a mailing list.
Pay it Forward: Use your platform, clout, or money to help someone else along. Throw opportunities their way. Extol your mentors, teachers, peers, and coaches.
Stick Around: You have to play till the ninth inning sometimes, man. Both in life, and in finding a parking space.
Chain Smoking: Never stall out in your career by never loosing momentum. Keep showing up, finding inspiration, and just keep at it.