A painting class, but don’t become a painter
creative expression is often used as a gateway to something more practical, and is rarely accepted as something practical in itself. This is why parents will rush to place their kids on long waitlists for art and music programs, but won’t encourage them to become artists or musicians as they age.
An act of creative expression
is there a good way to categorize what’s an act of creative expression, and what is not? The answer is yes, and it has everything to do with agency. An act of expression can only be deemed creative when it is aligned with one’s true curiosities and interests.
Highly practical == Low agency
When practicality is of the utmost importance, one’s sense of agency is low. And for the most part, the practical career paths are well-traveled and apparent, whereas the creative ones are unpaved and uncertain.
At first there is no external validation
Here’s the harsh reality of any creative endeavor: in the beginning, no one cares. Every creator requires a balance of intrinsic motivation and external validation, but you’ll have to accept that the external piece will be missing at first.
Resilience to keep going
How will you manage the fact that you won’t be making any money from this? And without money, how will you cultivate the resilience to keep going.
Being an active patron
But this is where the power of reframing comes in. A Practical Creator doesn’t view a boring job as a dead-end endeavor, but as an active patron of their creativity.
After day job
When you’re in this first stage, you must rigorously work on your creative endeavors after your day job responsibilities. This is an absolute must.
3 things must happen at the same time
While you’re in the process of building wealth, you also want to build yourself as a creator. That means developing your skill sets, iterating on your abilities, and attracting an audience as a result.
Exchanging money for freedom
In the first stage, to be patient is to accept this tradeoff: You are exchanging a majority of your workday for money, which buys you the freedom required to spend the minority of your day on your creative endeavor.
When to take the leap
(1) You’ll have a decent amount of money saved up, and (2) You’ll gain some confidence in your abilities as a creator. It is here where the phenomenon of “taking a leap” develops.
What does an unchallenging work do
Anyone who spends a majority of their working life in an unchallenging environment cannot cultivate the clarity of mind required to bring out the best in themselves.
Effort != Reward
The causal chain linking effort and reward is perpetually reinforced in our most formative years, which carries with us well into adulthood. The issue is that this chain breaks down when we want to walk our own paths.
Personal curiosities are not immediately valued by the society
When you direct your attention to your personal curiosities, there’s no immediate reason for society to value that.
Silence is fine
The key is to remember that silence is normal, especially in the early stages. And the more you can internalize its normalcy, the greater your resilience will be in pushing ahead without looking back.
Survivorship bias
Success stories like Chesky’s tend to suffer from survivorship bias, where one exceptional case is made out to be a law instead of an outlier. The truth is, it wasn’t just his perseverance that made Airbnb a success.
Should you quit?
I parse through this conundrum is through two lenses: (1) Your pool of resources, and (2) Your sense of progress.
Improvement
This is why you must conduct an honest audit of progress as you slog through the Great Plateau. Even if the external validation piece is low, you have to use your inner judgment to determine if you’re improving.
Different kinds of silence
But if you’re experiencing periodic breakthroughs in silence, that’s a different story. Perhaps you sent your stuff to a creator you respect, and she encouraged you to keep going. Or you notice that a small but loyal following is developing with every piece you publish. This is a different kind of silence.
What you can control
Time is the force that allows serendipity to materialize, and this is something you can’t will into existence. The only thing you can control is the quality of what you produce and the cadence in which you publish.
What does traction look like
More people are finding out about your work everyday. More creators you admire are personally reaching out. You’re making products or services that are profitable. And most importantly, you’re working on your craft with a rigor and commitment that accentuates the best of your abilities
More network
In the same way that a marriage consolidates your networks into a united whole, every node of your creative life will be assimilated into your identity.
Confidence
Confidence is a close cousin of arrogance. Confidence is when you believe that your potential can be actualized, whereas arrogance is when you believe that your potential has already been actualized.
No finish line
A big part of the creative journey is understanding that there is no finish line. Even if you reach the heights of success, you know that there is still more room to grow.
Beginner vs Expert mindset
This leads to a final paradox that a successful Practical Creator must navigate. On one hand, you must continuously view your endeavor through the mind of a beginner. But on the other, you want to leverage the hard-earned wisdom you’ve picked up through years of experience.
Preserve your attention
In this final stage of the arc, grow your curiosities, but preserve your attention. Cultivate a beginner’s mind for the things you want to learn about, and the things that expand your intellectual horizons.
Patience
With that said, the three textures of patience to embody (in order) are tolerance, resilience, and balance
Reality
The reality is that the pace of your effort will not be aligned with the delivery of results. There will be silence, disappointment, broken expectations, and other variations of those unpleasant things. But the key is to remember that they are normal parts of the Great Plateau – not anomalies.
Challenges all the time
But the punchline here is that every stage will be challenging, and that’s the point