R: RADICAL CONCEPT LAUNCHING
THE MORE PEOPLE TELL YOU YOUR IDEA WON’T FLY, THE MORE YOU SHOULD LAUNCH IT FOR THE UNIVERSE TO DECIDE!
Here’s the friend test. Tell everyone you meet your wackiest idea. Forget the ones who think you’re crazy; the other excited few, you can consider your real friends.
Make your ideas real. You can only get feedback if you have finished product to show. Nothing has the same impact as an actual piece. People can only judge your art as awesome or a piece is shit if they can see it. Buyers only buy finished work. The Leroy Brothers have been explaining and promoting our most ambitious project,www.leroybrothers.com, for three years. During that time, we (and many partners) made flagrant mistakes.
Initially, we thought it would take 4 to 6 weeks to develop the site. It ended up being 162 weeks,approximately 30 times longer than expected. Humans are incredibly bad at estimating time. We changed the layout three times, changed the name twice and completely changed the programming codes thrice.We threw two nearly finished versions in the trash, and by the time we went online, we were outdated. Almost stillborn! We didn’t do too bad.
It took Twitter-founder Jack Dorsey from 2000 to 2006 to get his idea online! Time goes fast on the net. Weeks of work! Tons of money! All garbage! Normal people would have quit a long time ago, but the Leroy Brothers turned the time lost into an advantage, constantly improving the project.
However, during our three years’ development, we continued to show work generated from the unfinished site, and even sold pieces! We produced paintings, installations and sculptures. All generated from the site! What would have happened ifwe’d waited for the public launch to produce and show pieces? We’d probably be bagging groceries for tips by now. Don’t expect toget everything right the first time. Don’t wait until you think you finally created the perfect piece. You might never create it! Besides, in the end, you’re not the one who decides on the quality of your work.
