Is Your Business a Big Question Mark to Prospects?

I´m not a preacher
But I like phrases, especially those that you get told from your parents. They come in handy every here and then in life. Thinking about these quotes, its interesting how much truth lies in a short saying like: "Barking dogs do not bite."
This sentences are self descriptive, no questions left, nothing to get wrong.

As complex as any freelancers business is, Some people tend to carry a specific intricacy out to the prospects they want to reach. Unconsciously.

This scares the hell out of people, let alone interested parties.
Its easier to sell more to someone who is already hooked on your products.
The same mechanics that McDonalds use to launch and successfully sell a new menu offer.

Whats your Promise?
My cornerstone is to keep things simple, at least to prospects and existing clients, and I guess that is why I´m asked. No one wants to hear about your sophisticated process and how difficult it is for you to achieve this or why it cost a dime to change that.
People (prospects included) turn away when they read some keywords that bear difficulties, especially those that you may not be aware of. The best examples are blog posts or messages filled with vampire words.

The reason why Apple sells Mac´s is that they don´t leave a questions unanswered.
The way Wacom has climbed the top of input devices for digital graphics is, that it is pretty self explaining and...you guess it, leaves no question mark at the very bottom.

I have to admit its a process, life is a sophisticated process, but from above everything looks plain.
My credo is to do it like a duck, sweat and run like hell under water, but keep things calm on the surface, this keeps a cool brain and looks even nicer than the other way round.

What also confuses people and prospective clients is when we change.
Sure, artists try to experiment and change minds like trousers, but its not good for the business of doing client work, if you´ve played the Piano yesterday, paint today and create FX for movies tomorrow.

Even if this is your nature, separate things and run every action as a very own project that you nurture. This way people get an impression "what else" you can do, but if you can communicate what your main area of expertise is, its not that confusing anymore, it underlines your value instead of ripping it apart.

It all boils down to this:
When you are talking with friends and parents about what you do. you feel annoyed by the same questions over and over. The more its important to get a clear and especially a fast explanation of your business. The "elevator speech" is a practice that is common today and used by professionals all over the world. It describes the ability to talk to a stranger and communicate in less than a minute what exactly you do.

What I observe is also a lot that people cannot apply the "elevator speech"  to their web presence.
You know that has happened, when you browse a website for around 10 minutes and didn´t get the idea what the creator will tell you.

Get simple, or better said: "simply get it".

The Genius in us

Just recently I stumbled through my blogs and found a link on muddy colors about a documentation called "My Brilliant Brain" which is indeed a very great scientific and visual exploration about how brains do work.

While it reminded me on the BBC episode Glad to be mad ( just found the German version here) it gives great insights into three different kinds of geniuses:

1. The born genius
2. The genius made through education
3. The genius by accident, through brain damage ie.

The history of the genius is as interesting as the scientific results of our days.

When viewing these documentation one thing was totally clear to me: either of these "child prodigies" or geniuses has been nurtured by their parents to go on with their gift, or by themselves to do what they have to do.

Is there a difference after 10000 hours?

This is interesting, because it arouse a question in me: " If a born and an educated genius both arrive at the 10k hours of practicing, will there be a difference at all?"

From the technical point of view, I´d say no, but from the mental ability how to create things and deal with learning, I guess the born genius has a little advantage.

But when it comes down to the 10000 hour rule everyone has to be clear to themselves; is that really what I want to do in my life? It seems to me that people with a genius have just one advantage; they are totally clear about their objectives and about their profession and never, ever put in question why they are on earth.

The earlier in life you get motivated from everyone else, its obvious that you don´t need to spent a dime on self doubt.

With that in mind, isn´t then everyone a genius who just practices hard enough, breaks the 10k, 20k hours barrier and insists to have a profession? Maybe.

According to Seth Godin, everyone is a genius at times, and no one is a genius all the time, I love this phrase, because its true. Everyone has had the  HEUREKA™ moment and to me it describes exactly how to achieve it. Look at Musicians for example, Depeche Mode has at least 2 hits on every album they´ve released, is that genius? Or just great observation of mainstream? Or compare artists who dare to sell shit in tins to museums, are they geniuses? 

No, I guess not, they are just rad and play with audacity and authority to gain media interest in what they do.

But to have at least 2 hits on every album released, needs more of a genius in the long run, and it describes very good what S. Godin wants to express.

Autistic dedication to a craft

There are some things all these people from the documentations have in common; dedication, autistic features  and a burden.

I cannot arrogate to know anything about what makes a genius, but I´m as much interested as anyone else to find out more about that matter. One great observation I share with a lot artist-friends whom I know personally is the fact that a healthy, autistic features in combination with dedication often referred to as "flow" helps us concentrating. I also won´t like to share the pressure a child prodigy has to live with, the expectations of others must be incredible and somewhat daunting.

There was even this child Kieron, who paints like an old master, but to be honest, this isn´t a prodigy and even not something that works out in the long run. 680 + people on a waiting list is a lot of pressure for a seven year old kid and I bet when he´s 15 and want to play soccer for fun or want to do anything else for a living, the childhood is gone for the sake of success. 

I´m sharing the same opinion as Seth Godin when it comes to the statement that our society is drumming the genius part out of us for the Faustian bargain, in which we trade our genius and artistry for stability. But everything comes with a prize tag and paying with a "gone" childhood is probably something that isn´t for anyone and its twice wasted if its not spent wholeheartedly on something, so again the born genius has the advantage that in early years a chance of a lifetime can appear, if nurtured positively.

The scientific results combined with the right motivation can empower the impossible and the combined power of a lifelong student and learner with the artistic dedication of an artist has enormous possibilities in the long run.

And guess what, this is true for anyone who wants to achieve something in life. I say, and these documentations are the proof, that our brain needs constant updates, bits of learning and measurements, pushing the boundaries and challenges on a regular basis. No wonder that the higher educated have the better jobs Did you ever wondered why those working from 9-to-5 are more likely to stop their abilities to grow when falling into the trap of the factory worker, where the end with alcoholism is programmed?

I´ve worked in factories too and have seen those people, without a future, without a perspective and the groundhog day repeating again and again and again.

If you have spent a few weeks on the assembly line you know what is meant with "drumming the genius part out". Working from home isn´t easy either and I doubt that some geniuses can live without help, let alone reminding them to eat or make breaks... again, everything comes with a price tag.

To end this observational post, I found this quote from Randy Pausch very fitting: "We cannot change the cards we dealt, just how we play the hand."

The Art of the Head Fake, or How to Let Go

The art of letting things go.

Our mind is a tool, keep it always up-to-date and you don´t have to worry about a bluescreen.

This is true, the things we experience, like failure, pain, depression, frustration, setbacks and also success are based on our mindset. Our mind connects feelings and keywords with people and things, just like a big database. The thing is, its often outdated.

The result of this: we are all just player in a game and the rules change every day, but you have to find out about the change by yourself, no one is going to tell you.

The art of letting go is deeply connected with success and personal growth.
As a freelancer and entrepreneur its good to know how to use this power, because believe me, its a power to be able to do so.

There are 2 things which are very important to every creative:

1. You need to know when your work is done and finished
2. You need to know when its better to "let go" and try something different

While you get better at these two things with every piece over time, its often the case that we overdo a piece, or spending too much time on something that ends up being mediocre.

Sure, no one is a genius all the time, Einstein had trouble finding his home (citing Seth Godin here)

But if anything is important in the development of skills for an artists, these are the key-skills that separates great artists from the good ones.

It begins with the idea.

My recent post about breeding ideas has led to a nice discussion with an art student, and it came to mind that the solution to their problem was to "let go". It was about the urge to bring an idea down to paper because of the fear to cling on that if they don´t do it.

Being too attached is bad for anything you do. Being too less attached will prevent HEUREKA™ from happening at all. Its about finding the right balance.

There are 2 everyday examples of this problem that everyone has faced a lot times.

Its time to study the cause of this problem in order to find the solution.

• Have you ever wondered what helps when you are searching for something very hard? Thinking about something different maybe? 

• Have you ever felt the pressure of writing an important letter, and the more you are stressed the less you are able to find the right words? Is writing at all useful? Should I send the letter?
  

I don´t need to write a book about these examples, because I guess you know the feeling described by now.

If we are under pressure or stress, our lizard brain -which is concepted to survive, is too busy keeping our search engine at power and cuts the energy to bypass it to our basic functionality. Think of it as a fail-safe-mode. 

Intellect is not available in "fail-safe-mode"

When we are transformed into a "lizard" we have not the extra of intellectual powers like creativity or imagination, we can only make use of our gut instincts and the ability of propagation, if present.

And in exactly this situation, it seems impossible to let go. Because that would mean we would give up, something that is a no-go for the lizard in us. But its important to give yourself a head-fake to be capable of letting things go.

Sometimes its as easy as saying to yourself: "I better have a coffee (or whatever you like) now" or have yourself realizing, that it was the first 10 minutes of workout for today.

It appears that turning the bad thoughts into something good, is difficult, but very helpful and in 99% it doesn´t work without a head-fake, so check out the link above, if you don´t get what is meant with that term.

Randy Pausch coined the term with the best meaning in my opinion, in his "last lecture" which can be found here where he explains how it works.

The virtue of the open minded

In another scenario I suggested to let go in asociation with breeding ideas.

I said that its better to keep the ideas in mind instead of putting everything onto the sketchbook for a later use. But this seems as well not very easy.

The problem with ideas is, that it is important to treat them like your partner, have trust and confidence in them and they will come back, treat them better and they will grow and bring even their friends to you.

What I wanted to say is; in order to breed ideas and have very good ones, you need to find a holistic way of thinking. A different mindset. One that allows your mind to be open all the time to gain input and find a glimpse of inspiration in everything you do with all senses. Whereas everyone elses mind is trained to shut down when routine occurs.

Every bad experience has a good thing - its on you to find it.

Instead of bothering, that because of the broken bottle you have left the house 5 minutes later in the morning, give yourself the head-fake that your unconsciousness has saved your life, probably because you could have had an accident otherwise, arriving 5 minutes late to work is the minor issue, in this case.

This is a head fake that will be saved by our unconsciousness and applied on new operations as well.

If you don´t burry what is good for you, you can make it work for you.

Make others believe in that too, and the world is a better place.

Can You Prevent Inspiration to Cause Mimicry?

It has to be said, that in terms of learning and growing, nothing speaks against mimicry. In fact you´ve learned in school and everywhere that copying in the name of study seem to be helpful, to some extent.

Fact is that copying can lead to quite usable results, but it skips the part that is called understanding.
Understanding on the other hand is important to know what´s possible and what not.

This post is for reader @Galendara, who inspired me to do a post about this topic. In this blog post I will bring light to some mechanics that keep us from achieving our goals.

First: To fully understand you need to find out where you are. Make a map.
If you are not fully aware where you stand with your "art", you cannot measure if you´re becoming better at what you do. Its also vital that the aspect of understanding what inspires you and your art becomes more attention. Otherwise the confidence in your abilities will shrink over time.

To better illustrate this aspect, I will explain it with a comparison:

Lets say you learn to play the guitar: Before you´ve ever played a note, rock-songs were just great and the mainstream bands seemed so unreachable. After a few lessons where you learned the basics and some chords you can replay some of the songs you liked so much. After a year you can play along with over 20 of your favorite rock songs, since they consists of only 3-4 chords. In art there is a similarity.

If you can depict your position in the map precisely, you have a decent advantage, this illustration describes it very good. The ladder to artistic success is top -and bottomless.

How art looks to a "non-artist"

Above: To a non artist all art looks great, with no exception. Nothing to worry about. This is how art looks from a recipients point of view who has nothing to do with the creation part.

An artists view of art

Wherever you are in the process of developing your abilities, the above illustration shows how you see things, when you dive into the matter of creating art. You are inevitable accessing the ladder to success, it will never change. Even if you reach the stage of being a very great and always inspiring artist, you´ll have a list of inspiration that you´ll never be able to touch. But its important to find your own way of describing art into these 4 (or more) categories.

Start sorting art like a curator

In order to develope your own style you must first define what you like and what not.
This is the hardest part.
It helps to put yourself into the shoes of a curator, a decisionmaker.

If you run a gallery based on art you like, you´d have to find gems.
In fact, you better be an Otaku to find these. To be a great artist you need to be an even better curator.
Curator is not a profession that can be studied, it is something that comes from observation. And luckily this ability can be trained.

Develop the curator in you

Unfortunately there is no shortcut for doing so.
The only thing you can do is to be active in art communities or visit a lot museums and galleries and make notes about works you like and why so.
Deviantart has a great potential in delivering a big quantity of images depending on your flavor directly to your messagecenter.

If you make it to your daily routine to go through your deviantwatch, the chances are good that over time you find yourself in this position of sorting images out like in the above illustrated manner.

You don´t need a background in art history to be a great artist

Most curators have a background in art or art history. If your goal is to be a better artist, your background can be replaced by the obsession of an Otaku. But you don´t necessarily need a professional background in art history.

You just need to develope a flavor and the ability to say what you like and why. And even more important: you need to internalize the process of separation to rely on it within a split second.


How to measure successful art?

Luckily we live in times where success in all of its facettes can be measured!
If you make use from services like deviantart to watch other artists work, its a good idea to focus on the works that are featured as a Daily Deviation or that find great recognition in the community, by exploring other "admired artists" -favorites folders.

Deviantart has a nice way of tracking and measuring success of art and artists, with public statistics.
If you can read the statistics quite good, you can easily separate authentic art from a copycats work.

In general I tend to compare the basic stats:

• Image views: If its a great image that is featured than it has anything from 10k views up to 100k.
• Favorites: this is the more interesting stat; how many people find it that great, that they feature it on their profile page?
• Comments: Its not that measurable than views and favorites, but within the 100-500 comments under a great or featured work can be gems of feedback that exactly points out what some people like in a piece and what not.
• Even better is critique, but since this feature isn´t used very much, its rare to find good critique there.

Note: Depending on your taste and preferred style of art, these stats can differ, its important to find out what statistics define the bottom and top of your favorite style of art and start to measure art inbetween this data.

The next step is to find out if this featured work is just a lucky number the artist has thrown on the table by happy accident, or is he/she able to put up such a great work on a regular basis?

The Profile: There are a lot stats too, like pageviews and community activity that gives a short overview about the authenticity of the artist. The gallery which can be even customized to be a portfolio reveals more about the artists work and the consistent quality.

Then it is important to find a conclusion: Is this artist doing art for a living, just for fun, still studying.
These are aspects that make me decide if  I want to follow/watch someone or not.


Still the question is: how to prevent inspiration to cause mimicry?

Worst answer ever: This is something every emerging artist has to find out by themselves. A constant overflow and lack of confidence in your own art can lead to a creative block.

Sometimes we are inspired and feel motivation to get back to "our work" to reach the next level. But sometimes the inspiration is accompanied by frustration, anger and stress which causes us to feel bad about the otherwise good inspiration. A typical scenario for the latter, is that you find the artist is too good and you could never reach such a level of professionalism, etc.

The positive thing is: this is all mentally. But it depends on our ability to sort inspirative art into the categories mentioned before. This helps to say: "OK, here am I, this is possible yet, this is what I want to achieve within the next 12 month."

Viewing other peoples art this way is important to your health too.
Everyone has a diferent pace to accomplish things, here´s a post about finding your own pace.

Another thing that decides how good you are in sorting inspiration, is the ability to let go.
Letting things go is a key skill and will be a hot topic for an upcoming post, so stay tuned.