The Practice: Shipping Creative Work

by Seth Godin

No one owes us anything.

No one owes us applause or thanks. No one owes us money either.

The feeling of being owed (whether it’s true or not) is toxic. Our practice demands we reject it.

The professional can answer your questions about why.

If we failed, would it be worth the journey?

You can do it and so you must do it.

Reassurance is futile.

I don’t want to fall, even once.

The practice is choice plus skill plus attitude. We can learn it and we can do it again.

The difficult part is becoming the kind of person who goes to the gym every day.

Show us your hour spent on the practice and we’ll show you your creative path.

The practice simply asks you to do it more than once, to do it often enough that it becomes your practice.

A professional is not simply a happy amateur who got paid.

If there is no change, there is no art.

Leaders make art and artists lead.

Better clients are demanding.

Signing your work and owning its impact are part of the generous act of being creative.

It might be possible to please everyone, but courageous art rarely tries.

First, find ten.

But first, you have to walk away from the others.

To cause change to happen, we have to stop making things for ourselves and trust the process that enables us to make things for other people.

But just because we can’t be sure doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try.

The “letters to the editor” section of the paper is designed to create the illusion that the editors care about what readers think. Particularly the readers who like to write letters to the editor.

That paradox is at the heart of our practice: we must dance with it, not pretend it doesn’t exist.

Instinct is great. It’s even better when you work on it.

We do our best work with intention.

Only a tantrum is authentic. Everything else we do with intention.

Your audience doesn’t want your authentic voice. They want your consistent voice.

What we seek out is someone who sees us and consistently keeps their promises to bring us the magic we were hoping for.

If you’re headed to graduate school to get a master’s, you might be better off spending those two years actually doing the work instead.

This desire for external approval and authority directly undermines your ability to trust yourself, because you’ve handed this trust over to an institution instead.

The truth: if a reason doesn’t stop everyone, it’s an excuse, not an actual roadblock.

You’ve acquired a piece of paper, but that doesn’t mean you care.

The uncertainty is the point.

Every author you love has published at least one book you won’t like very much.

Do other successful people have this narrative?

It’s hard to get blocked when you’re moving. Even if you’re not moving in the direction that you had in mind that morning.

Play to keep playing.

I stopped reading my Amazon reviews seven years ago.

What we actually learn from criticism like this is whether the marketer has done a good job of finding the right audience for the work.

He discovered early on that paying audiences cared more and demanded more.

Which was the hard part? I think it was seeking out the boos.

True fans require idiosyncrasy.

We don’t write because we feel like it. We feel like it because we write.

In fact, determination is precisely what’s needed to write poetry or create art.

The bogeyman doesn’t exist.

External success only exists to fuel our ability to do the work again.

The muse shows up when we do the work. Not the other way around.

Desirable difficulty is the hard work of doing hard work.

You’re never done, and you’re never sure.