The summary of this beautiful book is about 8 minutes, and for people in a hurry please find the short summary in the end (Here)
A new way of operating
Creativity is not a talent, it is a way of operating
We are living in times where inspiration is abundant and resources are plentiful, and everybody has these amazing and groundbreaking ideas that they want to show and implement.
Then what is holding people back? Why is there so such asymmetry in the number of people who want to do something and the number of people who actually go ahead and do it.
The solution lies in figuring out these huge questions the world is grappling with, now.
- How do I get my stuff out there?
- How do I get noticed?
- How do I find an audience?
The single and sole answer for all the three questions is to “show your work“.
Build a healthy habit of incorporating sharing into your daily routine. Don’t waste your time in partying and socialising in the name of networking, instead put that network to use and post bits and pieces of your work everyday consistently. This would give leverage when we need it for patronage, fellowship or feedback.
The book ‘Show your work’ by Austin Kleone is like a manual to guide you through the tricky waters of self-promotion , to help you attract people who would be interested in what you do, and to envision a world where your boss doesn’t have to read your resume because he/she reads your Blog. 😍
1. You don’t have to be a genius😒
Give what you have. To someone , it may be better than you dare to think — Henry wadsworth longfellow
The dangerous myth about creativity and genius is that they ‘operate in isolation’ or the ‘lone genius’ myth.
This is far from reality as these outstanding human beings operate in an ‘ecology of talent’ where a group of individuals interact with each other and new ideas are born. They support each other, inspire each others work, copy from each other and contribute to each others ideas.
Good work isn’t created in vaccum..!
Creativity is almost always in some sense a collaboration, the result of a mind connected to other minds.
So it doesn’t matter how talented you are, it is the quality of your contributions to the network that matters.
Don’t worry about being an amateur, That’s all any of us are: Amateurs. We don’t live long enough to be anything else
So, the takeaway is to keep sharing, and in that process ‘find your voice’.
‘You can’t find your voice if don’t use it..!’
“Find your voice, shout it from the rooftops, and keep doing it until people that are looking for you find you”
Dan Harmon
2. Think process, not product
Gone are the days when the artists and creative individuals were expected to toil in secrecy until their work is ready to be displayed to the public, and even then the process that shapes the art or product is kept under wraps.
We as human beings are interested in other human beings, and in what they do. People really like to see how art is made, how great products and services are designed. Instead of just stumbling across great work, they also want to be a part of the creative process, and that’s how great connectiopns are made.
By setting aside our egos and sharing the process with our audience we give them a sneak peek of what happens behind the scenes.
Become a documentarian of what you do 🤓
Document everything..!
3. Share something small everyday
Send a daily dispatch
“Put yourself, and your work, out there every day, and you’ll start meeting some amazing people.”
Bobby Solomon
Once a day, after you’ve done your day’s work, go back to your documentation and find one little piece of your process that you can share. Austin Kleon, Show Your Work
Austin Kleon
From Daily dispatch to Tangible art
As our daily engagements catch gather momentum, we see patterns and themes emerging out of our contributions, and from these themes comes something bigger and more substantial than all of the individual contributions combined.
If you had to just take away one message from this book, then it would be this: get your own website. The other platforms come and go, but your website is a permanent space on Internet and you get to fill it with your work. Let the internet work its magic on your work, and slowly but surely your name will become a currency of its own.
Don’t worry about having an amazing website, or wait for the perfect moment.
“The day to register your website was yesterday”
4. Open up your cabinet of curiosities
Don’t be a hoarder
Never just collect these nuggets of knowledge from all the wonderful and resourceful people around you just to save it for later, It’ll become stale. Use it to create something new, share with others, always give back more than you take
No Guilty Pleasures
When it comes to personal choices, never be ashamed of what you like. Own up and create a niche around your eccentric taste and dazzle the world. Don’t worry about judgements, the ones who like your work will find you and will start flocking around you.
Credit is always due
In this post Google era, copy-pasting, retweeting and reblogging are the norm, but it’s absolutely essential that we give credit to the creators of the work we’re using, that improves our credibility and also builds trust among the audience. We can’t be hijacking other peoples work and call it our own, the audience will see through that charade and will abandon us.
5. Tell good stories
Our work doesn’t speak for itself
We as artists would love to believe that ‘content is king’ and ‘art speaks for itself’ but that is rarely the case. We need to speak up, we need to tell the story behind our work.
Human beings like to connect, and when we spice up our story with personal anecdotes and inside scoops of the creative process we establish a bond and a connection with our audience
Structure your Story well.
6. Teach what you know
“The impulse to keep to yourself what you have learned is not only shameful, it is destructive. Anything you do not give freely and abundantly becomes lost to you. You open your safe and find ashes.” —Annie Dillard
Letting others in on your secret doesn’t necessarily mean that they start competing with you immediately. Skills are usually developed across a lot of years and thousands of hours of focus and practice.
Think about all the things you’re better at, things that you can share. It could be a reading list, a tool, a recipe anything you learn is a potential item to share.
Blogger Kathy Sierra says “Make people better at something they want to be better at.” and this is the best way to put it. We have all been on that road to perfection, and now that we’re fairly there, its our obligation to pass on what we learnt.
7. Don’t turn into human spam
“When people realize they’re being listened to, they tell you things.” —Richard Ford
Don’t be that person who says I want to be writer, but I don’t like reading, or, I want to be published in a certain journal, but I don’t even read that journal
“The writing community is full of lame-o people who want to be published in journals even though they don’t read the magazines that they want to be published in,” says writer Dan Chaon. “These people deserve the rejections that they will undoubtedly receive, and no one should feel sorry for them when they cry about how they can’t get anyone to accept their stories.”
If you want fans, you have to be a fan first. If you want to be accepted by a community, you have to first be a good citizen of that community. If you’re only pointing to your own stuff online, you’re doing it wrong. You have to be a connector. The writer Blake Butler calls this being an open node. If you want to get, you have to give. If you want to be noticed, you have to notice. Shut up and listen once in a while. Be thoughtful. Be considerate. Don’t turn into human spam. Be an open node.
Be someone worth following, don’t engage with people you don’t want to, don’t talk about things you don’t like, and most importantly..don’t ask people to “follow me” (guilty as charged..! 🤓)
“Whatever excites you, go do it. Whatever drains you, stop doing it.” —Derek Sivers
If the people you’re surrounded with are making you feel depleted or worn out, then it’s time to change your crowd. And when you do find your crowd, hold them close, and don’t let them go.
8. Learn to take a punch
The thing about the creative field is that we have to constantly put ourselves in a vulnerable position, basically every-time we show our work there is going to be some judgements, some feedback, some mean and some ugly comments.
The trick is to know how to ignore majority of the unsolicited feedback and to take into account the feedback from important people — your mentors, your gurus and your close friends.
“The trick is not caring what EVERYBODY thinks of you and just caring about what the RIGHT people think of you.” —Brian Michael Bendis
And anybody outside of that circle shouldn’t get to you. They are the Internet trolls, ready to wreak havoc on anybody and everybody who has ever tried to do something good with their lives.
9. Sellout
“We don’t make movies to make money, we make money to make more movies.” —Walt Disney
Be it an artist or a musician, money has to come from somewhere, so If an artist makes money out of his art, it is no crime.
Some of the best pieces in the history have been made for money, Sistine Chapel was commissioned by the pope, The Godfather was written for money.
So, convert your followers into Patrons and SELLOUT..! quit the romantic idea of a starving artist and make some money 💰
“Above all, recognise that if you have had success, you have also had luck—and with luck comes obligation. You owe a debt, and not just to your gods. You owe a debt to the unlucky.” —Michael Lewis
Once you’ve made it, help others. Get in touch with people who supported you when you were starting out, people who believed in you, and those who stuck with you no matter what.
Help them get better, help them overcome hurdles, share your story, explain your process, share your passions, and very soon they’ll be doing the same.
“There is no misery in art. All art is about saying yes, and all art is about its own making.” —John Currin
10. Stick Around
“Work is never finished, only abandoned.” —Paul Valéry
In your life, never lose momentum, never stall. Don’t let that engine of a brain to idle, jump from one project to another, let the ending of one be the inspiration for your next one.
Let the time you spend on your Commute and exercise be these pockets of creativity where you can streamline your thoughts about your next engagement, or even read a book.
Begin Again
“Whenever Picasso learned how to do something, he abandoned it.” —Milton Glaser
The moment you have mastered an art form move on to the next one, only by ditching what’s done can we create room for new learnings.
Peace..! ✌️
Summary for people in a hurry
‘Show your work’ is all about sharing your work with your audience. In times where self-promotion is considered to be cringy and sellouts are bad mouthed, this book serves as a welcome guide to get you through the tricky waters of self-promotion, to help you attract people who would be interested in what you do, and to envision a world where your boss doesn’t have to read your resume because he/she reads your Blog. 😍
The book is laid out in ten simple chapters that eventually answer the age old questions bothering the creative minds of the century.
- How do I get my stuff out there?
- How do I get noticed?
- How do I find an audience?
The easiest way to address all of the above questions is to ‘share your work’.
No matter what creative stage you’re at, people would be interested to know and be a part of the creative process. You don’t have to be a genius to
Focus on your process, and not just the final product. Share some bits and pieces from your creative journey. Share your muse, your inspiration and how you envision the final product.
Get your own website, in this world where almost everything comes with a catch, our website is something that we can truly own, and also serves as a megaphone to shout out our story and to teach the world what we know. In that process of sharing, we evolve and become tough.
So, in conclusion, show the world what you got and stick around until you get the love and affection that you and your work deserve.
Similar works: Erfansthought
“𝐌𝐚𝐲 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐜𝐡𝐨𝐢𝐜𝐞𝐬 𝐫𝐞𝐟𝐥𝐞𝐜𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐡𝐨𝐩𝐞𝐬, 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐟𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐬
