5 things slowing down your creative career.
After several years working in creative businesses (music, marketing, design) I’ve come to the realization that creative success doesn’t come from natural-born talent, it comes from the right creative mindset.
A wrong mindset will slow you down and even kill your motivation to do what you’re best at. No matter if you’re a designer, a musician or even a writer, these are five things you should keep in check.
1. Fear of confrontation.
You were taught to meet in the middle, to avoid confrontation. You were taught that the best solution is the one where everyone goes home happy. You were told that confrontation is bad. Well, they were wrong.
Confrontation, different opinions and discussions are positive in creative environments. You must speak up, you must ask why.
Meeting in the middle is not the best solution always, it’s actually the worst: “a little bit of your idea, and a little bit of mine, just so we don’t have to argue.” Meeting in the middle, means compromise and compromise usually means mediocre solutions.
Sometimes your idea won’t be used, but sometimes it will; it’s about giving and receiving. Ultimately it’s respect that makes things move forward, not avoiding confrontation.
2. Not adapting quickly enough
Things move fast, deal with it. Don’t get stuck in the past, learn how to let go. If you did something great, move on; if you fucked up move on faster.
3. Not asking for help
No matter who or how talented you are, asking for help speeds things up.
Somewhere, someone also taught us that asking for help made you look weak, that your achievements only had merit if you achieved them by yourself and only by yourself, otherwise you were cheating. They were wrong.
I remember a couple of years ago – while working at Bandtastic, an independent crowdfunding platform for live shows – most bands and managers disliked the crowdfunding model for fear of ‘risking their reputation’, leaving on the table the opportunity to play in other countries. With time, more and more creatives have used crowdfunding for their projects, but it’s still a no-go for many.
And it’s not only about financial support, some creatives don’t like asking for help in the form of feedback. They’re either afraid that others see them as insecure or untalented or they just think it’s useless. If you feel this way it’s possible that you’ve recieved useless feedback because you don’t know how to get good feedback, here are 3 simple steps to get useful feedback:
- Give context
- Ask questions
- Listen
The simple act of asking for feedback will open a larger conversation to build greater things. Oh! and whenever you hear something you don’t like, remember that you are not your work.
4. Finding excuses
If you don’t seem to find motivation to do whatever you have to do, ask yourself:
“Why haven’t I started?
Do I believe in this?
Do I have the skills to accomplish this task?”
Then act accordingly. If you feel that you’re doing something pointless, stop; if you don’t know how to, figure out if it’s worth taking the time to learn, otherwise ask for help.
Find the tiny steps that will help you accomplish the task, lying to yourself is the biggest waste of time.
5. Caring about what others think
Putting things out there is hard. Releasing a record or book, launching a product, changing the identity of your brand… all these bold moves require courage and thick skin. Once it’s out, it’s out.
People will have opinions, good and bad.
Don’t believe either.
Do your best every time, learn and move on to the next thing. This is your race, not anyone else’s.
These 5 things make the difference between a successful and a mediocre creative professional. The difference between a fast moving career and a frustrating one lives in the the courage you have to stand up for your opinions, the love for your work and a parallel ability to move on, your humility to ask for help at the right time, your focus to get shit done and your resilience to keep working despite others’ opinions.
Speeding up your creative career is all in your mind.
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Thanks to Jonathan, Carmen and David for their feedback on this article and Max for the illustrations.
Lulo is the Founding Partner of 23 Design, a studio that solves business challenges through design.
