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If you accept that human beings are difficult to change, and embrace (rather than curse) the uniqueness that everyone brings to the table, you’ll navigate the world with more bliss and effectiveness. And make better decisions, too.
When our responses turn into reactions and we set out to teach people a lesson, we lose. We lose because the act of teaching someone a lesson rarely succeeds at changing them, and always fails at making our day better, or our work more useful.
Then he borrowed a portable blackboard and wrote, “Seats to Virgin Islands, $39.” He went back to his gate, sold enough seats to his fellow passengers to completely cover his costs, and made it home on time.
any additional effort, regardless. The bureaucrat is a passionless rules follower, indifferent to external events and gliding through the day. The clerk at the post office and the exhausted VP at General Motors are both bureaucrats.
art is the act of navigating without a map.
John has been brainwashed, sold hard on not becoming a linchpin. His boss has given him a script, a set of rules, and has intimidated him into leaving his art at home. As a result, he ends up as a follower, a cog, a quiet, replaceable participant in the system.
Transferring your passion to your job is far easier than finding a job that happens to match your passion.
A sturdy lad from New Hampshire or Vermont, who in turn tries all the professions, who teams it, farms it, peddles, keeps a school, preaches, edits a newspaper, goes to Congress, buys a township, and so forth, in successive years, and always, like a cat, falls on his feet, is worth a hundred of these city dolls. He walks abreast with his days, and feels no shame in not “studying a profession,” for he does not postpone his life, but lives already. He has not one chance, but a hundred chances.
the individual in the organization who collects, connects, and nurtures relationships is indispensable.
Virtually all of us make our living engaging directly with other people. When the interactions are genuine and transparent, they usually work. When they are artificial or manipulative, they fail.
A cornerstone of your job is selling your boss on your plans,
Do your art. But don’t wreck your art if it doesn’t lend itself to paying the bills. That would be a tragedy.
Understand that there’s a difference between the right answer and the answer you can sell.
Focus on making changes that work down, not up.
create moments where your boss can happily take credit.
The War of Art, by Steven Pressfield
The Gift, by Lewis Hyde
The Gift, by Marcel Mauss
Art Is Work, by Milton Glaser
Man on Wire, by Philippe Petit
True and False, by David Mamet
The Lonely Crowd, by David Riesman, with Nathan Glazer and Reuel Denney
From the American System to Mass Production, 1800-1932, by David Hounshell
The Power Elite, by C. Wright Mills
Weapons of Mass Instruction, by John Taylor Gatto
Zen Habits, by Leo Babauta
Ignore Everybody: And 39 Other Keys to Creativity, by Hugh MacLeod
