My office cubicle was plain and basic so I added color to it. One year after leaving my scratch-art works next to a half-empty wall, I pinned some butterfly and rose origami. And then I found myself so engrossed with the art of paper-cutting and recently transitioned into card-making – which puts to good use my poetry-making skills (Yes, I write my own card sentiments!). My every day have since been mood change because Austin Kleon’s inspired me.
I met Austin Kleon through my colleague from the Finance Department. He lends me the book written by Kleon, entitled “Show your work!” Kleon is a writer who draws. He is a best-selling author and speaks frequently about creativity in the digital age.
I’m in the mood for sharing, so I’ll let you take a peek at Kleon’s “10 ways to share your creativity and get discovered”
- You don’t have to be a genius.
Find a genius. “Give what you have. To someone, it may be better than you dare to think” – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Be an Amateur. “That’s all any of us are: amateurs. We don’t live long enough to be anything else.” – Charlie Chaplin
You can’t find your voice if you don’t use it. “Find your voice, shout it from the rooftops, and keep doing it until the people that are looking for you find you.” – Dan Harmon
Read Obituaries. “Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything – all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure – these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked.” – Steve Jobs
2. Think Process, not Product.
Take people behind the scenes. “A lot of people are so used to just seeing the outcome of work. They never see the side of work you go through to produce the outcome.” – Michael Jackson
Become a documentarian of what you do. “In order for the connection to happen, we have to allow ourselves to be seen – really seen.” – Brene Brown
3. Share something small every day.
Send out a daily dispatch. “Put yourself, and your work, out there every day, and you’ll start meeting some amazing people.” – Bobby Solomon
The “so what?” Test. “Make no mistake: This is not your diary. You are not letting it all hang out. You are picking and choosing every single word.” – Dani Shapiro
Turn your flow into stock. “if you work on something a little bit every day, you end up with something that is massive.” – Kenneth Goldsmith
Build a good (domain) name. “Carving out a space for yourself online, somewhere where you can express yourself and share your work, is still one of the best possible investments you can make with your time” – Andy Baio
4. Open up your cabinet of curiosities.
Don’t be a hoarder. “The problem with hoarding is you end up living off your reserves. Eventually, you’ll become stale. If you give away everything you have, you are left with nothing. This forces you to look, to be aware, to replenish… Somehow the more you give away, the more comes back to you.” – Paul Arden
No guilty pleasures. “I don’t believe in guilty pleasures. If you f—ing like something, like it.” – Dave Grohl
Credit is always due.
5. Tell good stories.
Work doesn’t speak for itself. “To fake a photograph, all you have to do is change the caption. To fake a painting, change the attribution.” – Errol Morris
Structure is everything. “In the first act, you get your hero up a tree. The second act, you throw rocks at him. For the third act, you let him down.” – George Abbott
Talk about yourself at parties. “You got to make your case” – Kanye West
6. Teach what you know.
Share your trade secrets. “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
7. Don’t turn into human spam.
Shut up and listen. “When people realize they’re being listened to, they tell you things.” – Richard Ford
You want hearts, not eyeballs. “What you want is to follow and be followed by human beings who care about issues you care about. This thing we make together. This thing is about hearts and minds, not eyeballs.” – Jeffrey Zeldman
The vampire test. “Whatever excites you, go do it. Whatever drains you, stop doing it.” – Derek Sivers
Identify your fellow knuckleballers. “It’s all about paying attention. Attention is vitality. It connects you with others.” – Susan Sontag
Meat up in Meatspace. “You and I will be around a lot longer than Twitter, and nothing substitutes face to face.” – Rob Delaney
8. Learn to take a punch.
Let ’em take their best shot. ” I ain’t going to give up. Every time you think I’m one place, I’m going to show up someplace else. I come pre-heated. Take your best shot.” – Cyndi Lauper
Don’t feed the trolls. “The trick is not caring what everybody thinks of you and just caring about what the right people think of you. – Brian Michael Bendis
9. Sell out.
Even the Renaissance had to be funded. “Sellout…I’m not crazy about that word. We’re all entrepreneurs. To me, I don’t care if you own a furniture store or whatever – the best sign you can put up is SOLD OUT.” – Bill Withers
Pass Around the Hat. “I’d love to sell out completely. It’s just that nobody has been willing to buy.” – John Waters
Keep a mailing list. Make more work for yourself. “We don’t make movies to make money, we make money to make more movies.” – Walt Disney
Pay if forward. “Above, all recognize that if you have had success, you have also had luck – and with luck comes obligation. You owe a debt, and not just to you gods. You owe a debt to the universe.” – Michael Lewis
10. Stick around.
Don’t quit your show. “Work is never finished, only abandoned.” – Paul Valery
Chain smoke. “We work because it’s a chain reaction, each subject leads to the next.” – Charles Eames
Go away so you can come back. “The minute you stop wanting something you get it.” – Andy Warhol
Begin Again. “Whenever Picasso learned how to do something, he abandoned it.” _ Milton Glaser