The key to unlocking 'creative' work 🔑

The learnings of 'The Practice' by Seth Godin

Hello friends,

Welcome to the first edition of What’s the Gist!

So normally I wouldn’t pick a book about creativity up because I don’t consider myself a ‘creative’ person by any means, nor am I involved in the arts world 👩‍🎨. But when thinking about launching this newsletter, I thought it’s worth hearing from one of the most read authors both online and offline, someone with multiple best seller books and a blog post each day for the past 7,500 days! 📚

Here are the main constructs I took away from this book:

💡 Creativity is an action not a feeling
💡 Passion isn’t innate 
💡 Generosity should be at the core of your values
💡 Reassurance and worrying are futile
💡 Talent is overrated 
💡 Generic is a trap, but genre is a lever

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Creativity is an action not a feeling 🤯

You don’t ‘feel' creative then produce the work. You feel creative because you’ve produced the work. Every professional writer, singer, artist, designer, etc. has put in countless hours honing their skill so that they become an overnight success. 

Drew Dernavich has published more cartoons for The NewYorker than just about anyone else. One day he posted a picture of his desk:

Moral of the story: grow your discard pile. The more you create, and more likely something will succeed. Action precedes creativity. Good habits repeated over time lead to good outcomes. Focus on honing in your daily practices and the results will follow.

Passion isn’t innate 🧬

The concept of passion is often overly romanticized to refer to something that is in your DNA. Something you are born with and need to ‘find’ within yourself. But reality is that once you decide to trust yourself and commit to a process of creating something, you will have found your passion. You can have multiple passions and in different domains too. It comes down to choosing to trust yourself and believing that commitment to the process can uncover your passion(s). This concept deconstructs the status quo because the idea of ’finding’ your calling gives us a convenient place to hide -I’m personally guilty of that 🙋🏻‍♀️.

"After all, who wants to do difficult work that doesn’t fulfil us. Who wants to commit to a journey before we know it’s what we’re meant to do. The trap is this: only after we do the difficult work does it become our calling. Only after we trust the process does it become our passion. Do what you love is for amateurs. Love what you do is the mantra for professionals”

Generosity should be at the core of your values 🌱

Rather than thinking of your creative work as an individualistic activity, change your perception to see it as an act of service to others. You are making something that aims to create positive change for a specific group of people. Once you start seeing it as such, it gives your work deeper meaning and a bigger sense of urgency that it’s not about you, it’s about showing up and providing for others. This requires you to channel empathy in each step of the way.

Reassurance and worrying are futile 🛑

Don’t look for reassurance that your plan will work. While it feels nice to have someone tell you everything is going to work out, reality is you are doing something that MIGHT work, but might also not work. We worry because we seek guarantee. Some affirmation that our efforts will pay off. All the reassurance in the world will not make up for lack of commitment to the practice. You must trust yourself enough to lead the way and make the change. 

Talent is overrated 🥈

Talent is something we are born with, a magical gift we are given. But skill is earned. It’s learned and practiced and hard-won. 

“ It’s insulting to call a professional talented … Many people have talent, but only a few care enough to show up fully, to earn their skill. Skill is rarer than talent. Skill is earned. Skill is available to anyone who cares enough."

What differentiates good from great are two things; skill and attitude. Learned and practiced skills done over and over again, and an attitude to find pleasure and satisfaction is mundane tasks. 

So find build your ’superpower’. The thing people will call you ‘talented’ for.

Generic is a trap, but genre is a lever 🎯

McDonald’s doesn’t offer pizza, and Nike doesn’t make high heels. Don’t look to please the masses, don’t be too generic to the point that nobody develops any strong positive or negative feelings towards you. Mass means average. Mass is boring. Mass conflicts with our desire to make something that matters. People want to feel spoken to, they want something peculiar that they will get only from you. 

Find your niche, know your audience and create for them. What do they want? What do they believe? What’s their narrative? The more detailed you can answer these questions, the more likely you are to actually creating change.

“ How is it possible for three cowboys to herd a thousand cattle? 
Easy. They don’t. They herd ten cattle, then those cattle influence fifty cattle, and those cattle influence the rest.
That’s the way every single widespread movement/product/service has changed the world.”

Find 10 people that genuinely care about your work (outside of friends and family).

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EXERCISE 📝

Has there been a creative idea sitting in the back of your head? This could be anything from writing to creating videos to teaching to designing to singing, etc… Something you believe you can offer value to other people through, but for whatever reason you haven’t started yet?

If so, I’ve created a short worksheet for you from the learnings of this book. Check it out!

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My rating

What I liked… 👍
Some good reality checks with how creative work is usually seen and perceived by most people. He displaces many of the attributions people usually give to success (ie. talent, passion, luck, etc.) and shifts the responsibility mostly to the individual committing to the practice, trusting the process, and fine tuning their own skills.

Not so much… 👎
Some concepts felt like it was trying too hard. For example, I get how creative content can be a generous act, but that doesn’t mean it always is, as implied. The purpose and the direction of the work plays big part here.
The structure of the book is a bit odd. It’s a collection short writings rather than a full flowing book.

Did something resonate with you from this summary? I’d love to hear your thoughts and feedback!