Stop Doing Everything Yourself
A guide to improving your personal projects.
How’s that new video game coming along? How about that graphic novel? What about that educational cartoon animation you wrote that you’re just dying for the world to see?
STOP RIGHT NOW.
Odds are, if you’re an ambitious creative, you’ve started working on some huge project which will highlight every amazing thing you’re possibly capable of. This will form a fantastic “portfolio piece”, right?
What if I told you there’s a way you can finish that project in 1/4 of the time, still have a good quality result, and impress employers just the same?
Step right up, folks, because this secret will change your life.
It’s called…
Teamwork.
Don’t scoff at me, just listen, okay? Working together with other people is a huge part of the creative process. I’ve known so many people (myself included) who’ve attempted to tackle large projects on their own. They wanted to prove they could make something amazing — but it never gets done. Other commitments pop up, new things get scheduled, you get busy. Pretty soon you’ve been away from the project for so long that it feels like a chore to return to it, and once you’re back you don’t even know where to begin picking up the pieces.
Teamwork is essential to completing an impactful creative project.
1. Teamwork gives you a motivation — someone to monitor your work.
Coming together is a beginning, staying together is progress, and working together is success. — Henry Ford
An important part of working together is that now you have someone to answer to. Gone are the excuses of why today just got too busy. When you’re your own boss, you tend to give yourself too many vacation days, saying that “tomorrow” is the better time to focus on it. But when working in a team, you keep each other responsible for the tasks to be completed. “Tomorrow” becomes “today”, “later” becomes “now”, and “I’m making dinner” becomes “want to order pizza?” (because let’s face it, when working on something great with people, you don’t want to stop).
Humans try to avoid disappointing others. This psychological trait is part of what enhances teamwork — if you slack off on the project, you’re letting the other person down. They have certain expectations of you, and the motivation to keep them satisfied is what helps keep the project on track.
2. Working with others exponentially improves the quality of output.
No one can whistle a symphony. It takes a whole orchestra to play it.
— H.E. Luccock
People get ideas based off their past experiences and interactions. The more people added to a team drastically increases the amount of ideas generated, because not only are thoughts coming from someone with a different background than you, but your collective thoughts back and forth can morph together to create one super-idea. You may think you have the best story in the world, but someone else may have a way of improving it in a way you would have never thought of before.
Challenge yourself. Be receptive. New ideas form constantly, and when we work together, we feel more comfortable expressing them. This collective intelligence we create enables us, as teammates, to act on ideas we would have never thought were achievable before.
Think of it this way. Someone right now could have the next best fantasy story all thought up in their heads, but are struggling to record it down. You come in with the ability to craft sophisticated tales from scattered thoughts, and suddenly this epic imagination comes to life in front of your eyes. They couldn’t have done it without your organization, and you couldn’t have done it without their ideas. This is teamwork.
3. Networking — Teamwork introduces you to a new world.
Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much. — Helen Keller
You find an ad seeking a talented web developer and think, that’s great but I want to do more visual design work. Our human instinct is to say no. Instead, say yes.
You answer the ad and realize the other person is actually an impressive graphic designer and is struggling to create an interactive artistic portfolio. By helping them out, you understand the field of the designer, the connections they have, and how they made it in the industry. This knowledge could help you excel in your own design career, the advice could be a jumpstart to taking that design course you always wanted, or their professional network could provide an opportunity for you to break into the world of design yourself.
The possibilites in life are endless, and you won’t know what you’re capable of until you go out and do it with other, equally ambitious people.
4. Teamwork is more desirable than individuality.
Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence wins championships.
— Michael Jordan
When an employer is seeking talented individuals, do you think they’re looking for a lot of people whose project experience comprises entirely of sitting alone in their office at 3am every night, chomping on cheetos and drowning through a 12-pack of Red Bull?
No. An employer seeks individuals who know how to work together to create a great product. The 3am talent may be an asset, but is certainly not the grounds of a hiring decision. If all you can show is that you work well independently, you’re inadvertently advertising your lack of teamwork experience — an essential component to the modern workplace.
Instead, collaborate on projects, because that will grab the attention of employers. You worked with three other friends to create an animated series? That’s impressive, come check out our equally ambitious team here at Pixar. You and your classmate combined your artistic skills to create a fire EP with some sick cover art? Awesome! I know a guy in the recording business who’d love to get in touch with such a power duo.
You see the trend, right? Employers tend to be more impressed by team accomplishments, and will more likely see what you’re capable of if you complement it with another person’s talent. While individual talent is important and probably attracts people just as well, the power of one is not as strong as the power of two.
So, rather than taking on the massive role of a whole team of people yourself to prove how awesome you are, instead prove that you can become a part of that team of people. Prove that you are a team player who can work with others to make a great product.
Stop trying to do everything yourself. Instead, do it with others.
Until next time.
– Austin
