How To Make A Living Being Creative, Part 1

Today, I’m speaking to Dr. Suzanne Burgoyne’s Creativity class at The University of Missouri.

My topic: Lessons Learned Along The Road Less Traveled

I’ve been fortunate to make a pretty nice living using, for lack of a better word, creativity as the primary tool of my trade.

Along the way, I screwed up a bunch. I’m going to be sharing those mistakes with the class as well as what those mistakes taught me.

What have I learned?

Here are the first eleven steps to my “success.”

1. Know how you’ll measure success. What’s your scoreboard? You can either measure success by money, fame, or by making a difference. Experience has taught me that focusing on the latter will take care of the first two if you want either or both of them… and that’s a big if… you may think you do, but…

2. Find someone who will tell you the truth. I’m not saying affirmation is bad. It’s great. It’s just not very hard to find. As you get more successful using this magical power of creativity, more people will start to treat you like a wizard. You’re not. Don’t believe your own press or their hype. A bunch of awards don’t mean you’re a genius. Find people you can trust to tell you the truth about your work and about your life. Hang on to them. They’re infinitely more valuable than money.

3. Resist getting pigeonholed. If you’re not careful, you can get comfortable being known for one particular skill or trait. I say “fight it.” Just when you’re starting to get comfortable using one tool or skill, pivot onto another. Keep growing. There’s magic out on the skinny end of the branch.

4. Figure out your cost of staying power. Always know the number you need to make each month to pay your bills and have a little bit of fun/blow money. Knowing and respecting that number is your key to freedom. Strive to keep that number as low as possible so you can take more risks in your life and in your work.

5. Ask “Why?” You learned the most important question in the English language when you were three or four years old. Use it early. Use it often.

6. Answer questions as asked. People will respect you if you look them in the eyes and answer their questions as asked. Too often, creative types either get sidetracked or go out onto the warning track of tangents and random interests. Sometimes, it’s okay to do that (depending on the person who asked you the question) but only after you answer their question as asked.

7. Understand the differences in psychological type. Not everyone thinks, acts, and sees the world like you. It’s one thing to say it, and it’s another thing to truly believe it. Once I learned we’re all hard-wired to prefer different styles of communication, my eyes were opened. Read Keirsey’s Please Understand Me, and you’ll understand, uh, me… and yourself… and everyone you know.

8. Practice your critical thinking skills. You think something’s awesome? Great! Why? You think something sucks? Okay. Why? I have no problem with your opinion as long as you can articulate it. Train your critical thinking muscles by being aware when some stimulus makes you feel something. Practice being able to say why you feel the way you do.

9. Point out what people do well. Yes, number eight is important, but watch how often you’re being critically negative… especially publicly. No one’s ever accused someone of being too kind or thoughtful. Look for opportunities to genuinely compliment others. They’ll remember you for it. Everyone will remember you for it.

10. Know the law of attraction. If you use your creative powers to make stuff, know that if it attracts people powerfully, it will also repel people powerfully. Remember Teddy’s advice: It’s not the critic who counts. Work that’s evocative attracts and repels… and that’s okay. It’s the dull middling work that gets ignored. Don’t let the haters get you down. Starve the trolls.

11. Surround yourself with complementary people. Complementary, as in “pairs well with,” not “says lots of nice stuff to you.” Along the same lines as number ten, I’ve learned that people who are profoundly good in some areas of their life are profoundly bad in others. If you live over in the depths of your right brain, you need people in your work and in your life who live in the left. Be wary of spending too much time with people just like you, and for heaven’s sake, make sure you don’t work with only them.

Okay, those are the first eleven. Here are the other ten in Part 2.

How about you?

Do you live a creative life? What advice do you have for the emerging generation?