Real Artists Don't Starve: Timeless Strategies for Thriving in the New Creative Age

by Jeff Goins

What we perceive as original is often just a rearrangement of what has come before. This is especially true for creativity.

The best artists steal, but they do so elegantly, borrowing ideas from many sources and arranging them in new and interesting ways. You have to know your craft so well that you can build on the work of your predecessors, adding to the body of existing work.

From Real Artists Don't Starve by Jeff Goins.

The most creative minds in the world are not especially creative; they’re just better at rearrangement. In order to do that, they have to be familiar with their influences. They have to study before they steal. Yes, before you become an artist, you must become a thief; but even before you do that, you must first become a student.

The way you establish your authority in a certain field is by mastering the techniques of those who are already authorities. And what eventually emerges over time is your own style.

Creativity starts with stealing, but it does not end there. The creative process, when done right, culminates in something so interesting, that others are now compelled to steal from you. That’s when you know you’ve done your job: you are no longer the thief but the one being robbed.

Starving Artists wait for their Big Breaks. Thriving Artists become apprentices in their crafts.

No amount of natural ability can compete with diligent practice.

Being an apprentice is not just about making big asks but being diligent enough to take the work seriously and continue growing. What will make you stand out from the crowd is not just the audacity to ask for help but the humility to learn and act.

apprenticeship requires three important traits: patience, perseverance, and humility.

AN ARTIST’S JOB IS NOT TO BE PERFECT BUT TO BE CREATING.

WHEN YOU HARNESS YOUR STRATEGIC STUBBORNNESS, YOU GIVE THE WORLD A REASON TO BELIEVE IN YOUR WORK.

Most people tend to make use of only a small amount of their resources, whereas, to quote Angela Duckworth, “a few exceptional individuals push themselves to their limits.” This is grit in action, and the effect is a heightened level of focus and intensity on the work. What makes you stubborn in one area of life can make you successful in another, if you learn to harness the ability.

But let’s not misinterpret what happened here: talent did not do this; tenacity did. If you want to see your work succeed, you must be stubborn. You must be willing to keep going, even in the face of adversity. On the surface, stubbornness may look like a liability, but in creative work, it can be an asset. A little tenacity can fuel our pursuit of excellence, giving us the grit we need to create lasting work.

YOU DON’T JUST NEED PRACTICE. YOU ALSO NEED A PATRON.

Great work does not come about through a single stroke of genius, but by the continual effort of a community.

Promotion isn’t something an artist avoids; it’s an essential part of the job.

The novelist George Sand once wrote that it is the duty of all artists “to find an adequate expression to convey [their art] to as many souls as possible.” Or to put it more succinctly: art needs an audience.

The Thriving Artist, on the other hand, chooses a different path: she shares her work by practicing in public. Not by being sleazy or self-promotional but by letting people simply watch her work.

I am making a living therefore nobody can dispute that I’m an artist.”

Money becomes the means to doing more work.

The goal is to not live month to month, but to have enough margin to keep creating.

We must maintain as much ownership of our work as possible, not because it will make us rich but because it will make the work better.

“I wish I’d had a mentor,” he told me. “I never picked up on the fact that if you want to get somewhere, look at where you’re trying to get and start by studying the people who’ve gotten where you want to go.”

This is what ownership does. It gives you options. The Starving Artist tends to trust the system and hope for the best, but that’s a bad idea. “The object,” Lucas said, “is to try and make the system work for you, instead of against you.” The safest place for your work to stay is with you. No one has a more vested interest in your success than you do. Don’t trust the system to take care of you; that’s not what it was designed to do. Do whatever it takes to own your work; fight to keep the control. Failure to do this will most likely hurt you far more than it will help.

success is “being able to look yourself in the eye and know that you did everything you could to be the highest version of what you think you can be.”

We must hold out for as long as we can, being careful not to sell out too soon. It’s not that selling out is bad. But selling out in the wrong way, at the wrong time, and for the wrong reasons, is what we need to avoid.