The Practice: Shipping Creative Work

working in anticipation of what we’ll get in return takes us out of the world of self-trust and back into the never-ending search for reassurance and the perfect outcome. We believe that we need a guarantee, and that the only way to get that guarantee is with external feedback and results. It draws our eye to the mirror instead of the work.

Trust is not self-confidence. Trust is a commitment to the practice, a decision to lead and make change happen, regardless of the bumps in the road, because you know that engaging in the practice is better than hiding from it.

We don’t ship the work because we’re creative. We’re creative because we ship the work.

Our passion is simply the work we’ve trusted ourselves to do.

art: the act of doing something that might not work, simply because it’s a generous thing to do.

Decisions are good even if the outcomes aren’t.

We have to be able to say “it’s not for you” and mean it. The work exists to serve someone, to change someone, to make something better. In order to be popular, to reach the masses, we often have to sacrifice the very change we sought to make. Change someone. And, as Hugh MacLeod said, “Ignore everyone.”

Sales is about change: turning “I never heard of it” into “no” and then “yes.”

If we condition ourselves to work without flow, it’s more likely to arrive. It all comes back to trusting our self to create the change we seek. We don’t agree to do that after flow arrives. We do the work, whether we feel like it or not, and then, without warning, flow can arise. Flow is a symptom of the work we’re doing, not the cause of it.