Read & Lead

1. Ignore everybody.
Good ideas alter the power balance in relationships, that is why good ideas are always initially resisted.

2. The idea doesn't have to be big.  It just has to change the world.
The sovereignty you have over your work will inspire far more people than the actual content ever will.

3. Put the hours in.
Put the hours in; do it for long enough and magical, life-transforming things happen eventually.

4. If your biz plan depends on you suddenly being "discovered" by some big shot, your plan will probably fail.
Nobody suddenly discovers anything. Things are made slowly in pain.

5. You are responsible for your own experience.
Nobody can tell you if what you're doing is good, meaningful or worthwhile. The more compelling the path, the lonelier it is.

6. Everyone is born creative; everyone is given a box of crayons in kindergarten.
They're only crayons. You didn't fear them in kindergarten, why fear them now?

7. Keep your day job.
The creative person basically has two kinds of jobs. One is the sexy, creative kind. Second is the kind that pays the bills.

8. Companies that squelch creativity can no longer compete with companies that champion creativity
We have millions upon millions of human tapeworms thriving in the Western World, making love to their Powerpoint presentations, feasting on the creativity of others.

9. Everybody has their own private Mount Everest they were put on this earth to climb.
Admit that your own private Mount Everest exists. That is half the battle.

10. The more talented somebody is, the less they need the props.
A fancy tool just gives the second-rater one more pillar to hide behind. Which is why there are so many back writers with state-of-the-art laptops.

11. Don't try to stand out from the crowd; avoid crowds altogether.
It's your freedom that will get you to where you want to go. Blind faith in an over-subscribed, vainglorious myth will only hinder you.

12. If you accept the pain, it cannot hurt you.
That being said, doing something seriously creative is one of the most amazing experiences one can have, in this or any other lifetime.

13. Never compare your inside with somebody else's outside.
The more you practice your craft, the less you confuse worldly rewards with spiritual rewards, and vice-versa.

14. Dying young is overrated.
The bars of West Hollywood and New York are awash with people throwing their lives away in the desperate hope of finding a shortcut, any shortcut.

15. The most important thing a creative person can learn, professionally, is where to draw the red line that separates what you are willing to do, and what you are not.
Knowing where to draw the red line is like knowing yourself, like knowing who your real friends are. Some are better at it than others. Life is unfair

16. The world is changing.
Your way of looking at the world will need to become ever more fertile and original. This is true for everybody.

17. Merit can be bought. Passion can't.
Wanting to change the world is not a noble calling; it's a primal calling.

18. Avoid the Watercooler Gang.
The only reason they like having me around is because I'm still young and cheap. The minute I am no longer either, I'm dead meat.

19. Sing in your own voice.
Picasso was a terrible colorist. Bob Dylan can't sing or play guitar. But that didn't stop them, right?

20. The choice of media is irrelevant.
Every media's greatest strength is also its greatest weakest. Every form of media is a set of fundamental compromises.

21. Selling out is harder than it looks.
Diluting your product to make it more "commercial" will just make people like it less.

22. Nobody cares. Do it for yourself.
Making a big deal over your creative shtick is the kiss of death.

23. Worrying about "Commercial vs. Artistic" is a complete waste of time.
How a person nurtures and develops his or her own "creative sovereignty" with or without the help of the world at large, is a much more interesting subject.

24. Don't worry about finding inspiration. It comes eventually.
You have to find a way of working that makes it dead easy to take full advantage of your inspired moments. They never hit at a convenient time, nor do they last long.

25. You have to find your own shtick.
Part of being a Master is learning how to sing in nobody else's voice but your own.

26. Write from the heart.
Whether you're writing to an audience of one, five, a thousand, a million, ten million, there's really only one way to really connect. One way that actually works:  Write from the heart.