Ok I admit it. Creative people talking about how to do what they do gets on my nerves most of the time, and it pains me to be yet another one giving advice about how to try and sell books or music or artwork or services. GAG.
So I woke up this morning wondering how I could just cut through the crap and write something useful, really useful. I recently posted a video interview with writer Sid Fleischman, and something about it has been stuck in my craw ever since. This morning I got why.
Sid is telling people not to take his advice or learn from his experience. Why? Because writing “experts” have been telling us for years how the writing process is supposed to happen. Sid’s apologizing for doing it differently. Huh? The man is an award-winning writer who made his living with his methods. They worked. So why did Sid devalue what he had to offer?
Somehow I think he bought into the hype about what we are taught that Sir Ken Robinson discusses in this funny TED talk. Robinson says, “We are educated out of creativity.” Amen brother. And we are “advised” that what we think and experience and know isn’t as valuable as what the “experts” think.
Today’s useful tip: Don’t let the “experts” educate you our of your creativity. Value who you are.
Very nice tip. Experts are like us, they make mistakes. We are all subjects to embarrassment and humiliation. Being creative means that we must be willing to fail.
I have read that Thomas Watson, founder of IBM, even recommended that one route to success was to “double your failure rate.”
Thanks Brad, exactly…it’s the taking of what we are taught as the “right” or only way to do something that gets us stuck. Robinson says “We stigmatize mistakes. And we’re now running national education systems where mistakes are the worst thing you can make.”
Good thing not everyone buys into that one.