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A revolution is here, our revolution, and it is shining a light on what we’ve known deep down for a long time—you are capable of making a difference, of being bold, and of changing more than you are willing to admit. You are capable of making art.
But most of us have no idea that we’re no longer fenced in. We’ve been so thoroughly brainwashed and intimidated and socialized that we stay huddled together, waiting for
instructions, when we have the first, best, and once-in-a-lifetime chance to do something extraordinary instead.
This book revolves around a simple assumption on my part: that you know how to be human and how to make art. We don’t need to be taught to make art, but sometimes we need permission to do so. Following instructions is overrated.
The new safety
zone is the place where art and innovation and destruction and rebirth happen. The new safety zone is the never-ending creation of ever-deeper personal connection.
you become someone who is uncomfortable unless she is creating change, restless if things are standing still, and disappointed if you haven’t failed recently, you’ve figured out how
become comfortable with the behaviors most likely to make you safe going forward.
Creating ideas that spread and connecting the disconnected are the two pillars of our new society, and both of them require the posture of the artist.
something sold in a gallery or performed on a stage. Art is the unique work of a human being, work that touches another.
Seizing new ground, making connections between people or ideas, working without a map—these are works of art, and if you do them, you are an artist, regardless of whether you wear a smock, use a computer, or work with others all day long.
Speaking up when there’s no obvious right answer, making yourself vulnerable when it’s possible to put up shields, and caring about both the process and the outcome—these are works of art that our society embraces and the economy demands.
entrepreneurship, customer service, invention, technology, connection, leadership, and a dozen others. These are the new performing arts, the valuable visual arts, the essential personal arts.
The value we create is directly related to how
much valuable information we can produce, how much trust we can earn, and how often we innovate.
The connection economy rewards the leader, the initiator, and the rebel.
If your factory burns down but you have loyal customers, you’ll be fine. On the other hand, if you lose your customers, even your factory isn’t going to help you—Detroit is filled with empty factories.
If your team is filled with people who work for the company, you’ll soon be defeated by tribes of people who work for a cause.
Initiating a project, a blog, a Wikipedia article, even a unique family journey. Initiating something particularly when you’re not putatively in charge. We avoid these acts
because we’ve been trained to avoid them. At the same time, almost all people believe they are capable of editing, giving feedback, or merely criticizing.
Do you think we don’t need your art, or are you afraid to produce it?
The connection revolution has made it easier to find what we want, get what we want, and complain about what we didn’t get.
our success turns not on being the low-price leader but on being the high-trust leader.
The industrialist not only wants to make ever-more-productive trades, driving quality up and costs down, but insists on changing two things that have never been changed at a mammoth, worldwide scale before. Change the culture. The industrialist is big enough and powerful enough and profitable enough that he can act like royalty. He doesn’t issue decrees by royal fiat; he does it with advertising and lobbying and by offering a huge carrot to anyone who complies.
Change our dreams.
The industrialist needs you to dream about security and the benefits of compliance. The industrialist works to sell you on a cycle of consumption (which requires more compliance). And the industrialist benefits from our dream of moving up the corporate ladder, his ladder.
Capitalism is driven by failure, the failure of new ideas to catch on or the failure of the organization that fails when it is beaten by new competition. Industrialization is about eliminating the risk of failure, about maintaining the status quo, and about cementing power. “Too big to fail” is the goal of every industrialist, but “too big to fail” means that capitalism is no longer functioning.
The media are industrialized now, with no one in the chain taking responsibility for what’s reported, with fewer independent voices, and with a predictable sameness designed to make the system ever more efficient.
Art has no right answer. The best we can hope for is an interesting answer.
What matters now: Trust Permission Remarkability Leadership Stories that spread Humanity: connection, compassion, and humility
These are the results of internal trauma, of brave decisions and the willingness to live with dignity.
we choose to listen to those we trust. We do business with and donate to those who have earned our attention. We seek out people who tell us stories that resonate, we listen to those stories, and we engage with those people or businesses who delight or reassure or surprise in a positive way.
We know how to manage the world—we relentlessly seek to cut costs and to limit variation, while we exalt obedience.
Leadership puts the leader on the line. No manual, no rule book, no überleader to point the finger at when things go wrong. If you ask someone for the rule book on how to lead, you’re secretly wishing to be a manager.
The next asset that makes the new economy work is the story that spreads.
The chooser has too many alternatives, there’s too much clutter, and the scarce resources are attention and trust, not shelf space. This situation is tough for many, because attention and trust must be earned, not acquired.
More difficult still is the magic of the story that resonates. After trust is earned and your work is seen, only a fraction of it is magical enough to be worth spreading.
Again, this magic is the work of the human artist, not the...
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When price and availability are no longer sufficient advantages (because everything is available and the price is no longer news), then what we are drawn to is the vulnerability and transparency that bring us together, that turn the “other” into one of us.
For a long time to come the masses will still clamor for cheap and obvious and reliable. But the people you seek to lead, the people who are helping to define the next thing and the interesting frontier, these people want your humanity, not your discounts.
The extraordinary thing about our revolution is that it is turning most business into show business.
This economy is built on art, the art that is created by emotional labor, by bringing risk and joy and fear and love to the table.
Connection between people is always the result of emotional labor, not physical labor. The assets of trust and leadership and conversation can come only from the difficult work of creating personal art.
we do have an abundance of choice, an abundance of connection, and an abundance of knowledge.
This abundance leads to two races. The race to the bottom is the Internet-fueled challenge to lower prices, find cheaper labor, and deliver more for less.
The race to the top focuses on delivering more for more.
Just as the phone network becomes more valuable when more phones are connected (scarcity is the enemy of value in a network), the connection economy becomes more valuable as we scale it.
Friends bring us more friends. A reputation brings us a chance to build a better reputation. Access to information encourages us to seek ever more information. The connections in our life multiply and increase in value.
Fortunately, the cost of finding out what will connect is lower than you might imagine, and the chance to do it again is easily taken.
Once you understand that there are problems waiting to be solved, once you realize that you have all the tools and all the permission you need, then opportunities to contribute abound.
