Everything I Know

by Paul Jarvis

Courage doesn’t come from an absence of fear; it comes from being afraid and moving forward anyway.

I also see countless websites that follow the same layout as the leaders in the field, and use the same tone, the same calls to action and offer similar products. These aren’t direct copies or blatant rip-offs, but they’re similar enough that their owners aren’t doing themselves any favours. There’s nothing unique about them, so they’re utterly forgettable.

The world rewards people who try things and come up with new ways of doing business.

A large part of choosing your path is figuring out which values will determine your worth. Once that’s clear, it’s much easier to decide if the work you’re doing will increase or decrease your feelings of worth.

You and your blog are not a business model, nor are they a substitute for doing actual, tangible, valuable work.

Work means offering a valuable product or service – and that work has to inspire people to pay you for it.

If you have lots of money, you aren't magically worth more as a human being, just like you're not worth less than anyone else if you’re broke. Worth and money shouldn't be tied to each other, ever.

Promotion is no substitute for perfecting your craft.

I also make sure that I do what I’ve agreed to do – on time and on budget. No exceptions. That’s what it means to do great work.

If I had listened to “expert” advice, I might be running a large web design agency with employees, health-care packages, investors, HR consultants and probably some stupid fucking pool or foosball table for “morale.” The office dog would have a bio on the website.

You stay curious by taking a beginner’s mindset as often as possible. How would you approach something if you had never seen or thought about it before? A beginner’s mind acknowledges that you don’t know everything and still have more to learn.

It also allows you to be more innovative than someone who’s cynical or bored. That desire to figure everything out elevates your creativity.

In the beginning, you might fear that you won’t be successful. Once you achieve some success, you might be afraid that you won’t get any more. Once you have a lot of success, you might worry about letting down your now-sizable audience if you change anything or say the wrong thing. At any stage, there are always fears.

do. A funny thing happens when you focus on work that you love; more soon starts to appear. Like attracts like. Plus, that intersection between enjoying what you do and getting paid to do it is the sweetest place of all.

Challenging myself and pushing against my fears are two of my core values, and that won’t happen if I’m endlessly building client websites.

Sometimes, in order to stay true to yourself and your values, you need to innovate through change. And sometimes that means stopping and stepping back for a while.

Sometimes, we get ahead of ourselves before we even begin. We start thinking about next steps, five years down the road, what-ifs, or how it could all fail at a later date.

Focusing on the present requires real effort. It means not checking Twitter or email every five minutes or daydreaming about being interviewed on every huge podcast. It means doing what’s required, right now – and success still isn’t guaranteed. But if you don’t do the work, nothing will change, so why not at least try?

Spend your time worrying about what’s now, not what’s next.

You have to change your paradigm from consumption to creation. Then the possibilities are limitless.

Every time you do one task, you’re choosing not to do something else.

It also doesn’t equip us for dealing with a crazy, complicated real world where boundaries need to be pushed and experiments need to be done in order to make meaningful work.

Trying to be perfect prevents us from discovering our weaknesses and building on them. Trying to be perfect doesn’t push anything, nor does it expose who we really are. Because we’re not perfect.

Failure is a requirement for success, so don’t shy away from it.

Everyone I know who’s good at what they do isn’t good because they have magic fairy dust or shoot unicorns out their ass. They're good because they do what they do as often as possible.

My best work wouldn't exist unless I showed up and did it as often as possible.

Untested views are seldom worth holding, so facing a little criticism can only make your work stronger.

Listen to constructive feedback but ignore your inner critic. Fall of out of love with it immediately, because it doesn’t serve you. The world needs you to create, not to constantly edit what you make and dwell on your perceived shortcomings.

I focus on the task at hand, not the end result.

I try not to create and judge at the same time.

I break the experiment down into the smallest tasks possible.

I remember that these are experiments.

I don’t repeat myself.

“Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep.” Scott Adams

The best marketing always takes a stand. It’s not just about selling a product or service; it’s about showing an audience why they should want it at any cost, simply because they agree with what you’re doing.

Everyone is influenced by someone who came before them. Creation doesn’t exist in a vacuum.

Our muse lives in the work of others and it’s literally everywhere. Use it as a base to build and refine your own, unique story and flavour.

Enjoy the journey and the ugly process. It's yours. Stop measuring yourself against anyone or anything else and start examining what great work means to you.

even if you start and become a conduit for inspiration in that second, nothing is guaranteed. You can start working and the genius might not arrive. But it's a numbers game, and your odds of doing great work increase only when you do more work.

But if, in that moment, you go the easy path, the path of least resistance, the path that leads back to the same, tired place, then you missed your chance. You’re back to staring at online cat or celebrity photos, and the possibility of doing great work returns to zero. It goes back to being a pipe dream, something for future attempts... for tomorrow.

Genius might be trying to reach you right fucking now. Are you listening, or are you busy refreshing Twitter?