Everything I Know

by Paul Jarvis

If my work was so precious that it couldn’t stand up to constructive criticism and feedback, I wouldn’t be able to do it as a job.

Fall out of love with your inner critic immediately. Kill its voice before it kills you.

Being vulnerable is what drives us to make leaps, start new ventures, and most importantly, make and own our choices.

We admire vulnerable people because they take the risks we wish we could take.

If I live in the present while I create and don't worry about what happens once it's released into the public, then all I need to do is make sure the work aligns with my values.

If you frame ideas as experiments, you can’t technically fail at anything.

Persistence is the most important trait of successful people.

I focus on the task at hand, not the end result. Focusing on the process allows serendipity and personal exploration to take over.

I break the experiment down into the smallest tasks possible.

I remember that these are experiments. They’re not full-time business ideas.

I don’t repeat myself.

Blue Bottle, however, feels like people who love coffee so much, they want to sell you a cup that you’ll love, too.

If your work is based on helping others, showing that intention is a no-brainer. People will be drawn to your work, because we're all a little selfish and want our pain to go away. But if your work is focused on making money, people will see that you want to relieve them of their hard-earned cash.

I validate ideas by trying them out. Most of my initial ideas take almost no money and only require time to explore. If I enjoy doing the work, then the time is well spent.

Stop chasing perfection. Stop focusing on small details that don’t matter and that hold you back from releasing big ideas.

Helping people can lead to full-time work if enough people seek your help – and if you’re in the business of helping people full-time? That

When you're solving someone's problems with your valued expertise, you're going to satisfy a lot of people. They'll tell others how you helped them, and you'll have more people asking for help. So help people. Start doing it right now.

Instead, find your intersection—where what you do is meaningful and helps people who are willing to pay for your products or services.

Your intersection requires a great deal of craft. You have to be good at something. You can certainly be passionate about it, but you also have to be skilled. Otherwise, make it a hobby and enjoy it in your downtime.

If you aren't good at your craft yet, enough to make it into full-time work, ask yourself if you'd be willing to put in the time and sweat to become the best in the world. If yes, keep going. If no, find something else.

Once you’ve put in the time and sweat and you’re still not closer to being the best, find something different—not everyone is good at everything and you haven't found your sweet spot yet, so you have to adapt. Experiment with new things. You don’t have to be the best in the world, but you need to keep improving in noticeable ways.

Find the intersection where your interests meet your skills and reach an audience that'll pay for your time, work, products or services.

Individuals, not the anonymous “masses,” make connections with you. So don't bother trying to make everyone happy, or convince everyone to want what you make. It's impossible and it can quickly get disheartening to please people who don't care for it in the first place.

Your business is about your people. It's not just about you or what you make, but about everyone the work can touch.

Your people don’t have to be a huge group; they can just be that “small army.”

My people are on my mailing list. It’s where I most enjoy communicating and interacting.

If someone wants to work with me, and then reads what I think about my industry and disagrees... they probably wouldn't have been the right fit and would make me want to pull my hair out.

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.

The most important part of finishing anything is saying no. If I’m working on an idea, I say “no” to almost everything: new projects, new clients, social engagements—basically anything that would take my focus away from what I’m doing.

Frustration is never a good reason to quit. If I’m frustrated, I might walk away for a little bit, but I never throw in the towel just because I’m discouraged.

Sometimes we can’t say no – especially if we’re starting out, because “no” might be something we have to work toward. “No” requires options – and mortgages, kids, commitments and other life situations can limit those options. But as we work at our craft and provide deeper value for our audience, more options often appear.

Saying yes to the wrong things for too long will lead to work that lacks personal meaning.

You might feel like a fraud – like you aren't good enough to be doing the work you're doing, or like your opinion isn’t valid because you’re not an expert. There aren't really any experts, though, just people further along in their

I guarantee that they all feel like frauds sometimes, too. But if you're good at your work and people value your opinion, then congratulations—you’re in the same group as the experts.

Confidence means simply believing in your work and hard-earned experience while acknowledging that you’re never done learning. Experts can be wrong all the time. They can also be fearful.

Doing well at something comes from iteration and innovation, not constantly promoting what you've already made. There's a place for spreading the good word, but it shouldn’t take priority over generating ideas and creating killer new things.

If I see something that works for a project, I steal it. Small things.

Mimicking is taking something and passing it off as your own. This is bad – but not for the obvious reasons. It's bad because if you mimic what someone else does, you've failed to tell your story. Your story is the unique lens you use to create. It's what makes your work, your work.

When I break it down, that’s exactly how I’ve learned everything I know – not through school, but through theft and iteration.

All creative work includes a process that other people may never see.

The process is where the magic happens. Enjoy the beauty of creating, inventing, exploring. Don't wait until it's finished to feel rewarded, since that might never happen. The labour is the reward.

Comparison is difficult because we’re trying to match our whole, flawed selves against a perceived “perfect” other person. It's comparing our personal reality to a fantasy version of someone else – and you can't match up two non-like things.

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.

Making your own path is one of the scariest things you can do, because it makes you ultimately responsible for the outcome. You can’t do it and then blame someone else if it doesn’t work out. Fail or succeed, it’s completely on you.

Your work is not just about you; it’s about the people who consume it. Finding where your own values and meaning align with what your audience is willing to pay for (your intersection) is magical stuff and can take a lifetime to achieve.

Forge a new path by taking a single step in a new direction.

There are pieces of writing, music and design I've done that I don't hate. Fleeting, proud moments. Those moments of inspiration make me feel like I'm myself (which shouldn't seem as foreign as it does). It feels like I've grasped my true voice and held onto it with all my strength, if only for a second. It feels a little frantic, too, as if the muse is always trying to get away.

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. Keep at it and you may do great, inspired work.

Attention is a gift you give to your work. The more attention you devote to something, the less space fear can occupy.