GarthBox

Every artist, no matter the industry, will have to decide early on in their careers if they will give what the client or customer asked for or if they will give them something they are proud to have their name on.

A client may not ask for metrics to support the strategy you’re putting into action. Do you share the metrics that support it? What if they don’t support it?

If a customer at a restaurant orders a four-cheese ravioli, do you deliver just that? Or do you deliver an experience that’s worth talking about outside the restaurant?

A fair-goer is starving and you’ve got one last soft pretzel that’s not soft at all. Do you sell it because the customer wants it? Or do you say it will be 5 more minutes while you make a fresh batch?

Do you quickly throw together a book cover design for an author who doesn’t care about design? Or do you design a book cover that meets your high standard of excellence even if you’re not getting paid for it, even if people tell you the author won’t care, even if you know there’s a chance it’ll get scrapped in the end?

Here’s one more fork in the road for you: if a client or customer tells you that they won’t do business anymore with you after this last project…do you still give it your all?

Answers and attitudes to these questions dictate whether you’ll be a starving artist or a successful one.

 

Stay Positive & If You Won’t Put Your Name On It, Consider Not Shipping It Until You Do

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The president of a super successful multi-million dollar company recently told me much of what he has done with the company has been serendipitous.

He would start with an idea, and then unique and helpful (unsought-after) support would arise that made the idea better and wildly different than what he started with.

Soon he would find himself doing something no competitors were doing with little effort because of the serendipitous support.

What’s noteworthy is that he didn’t have these excellent ideas himself, nor did he act on them alone.

Some still see serendipity and momentum as a chicken or the egg situation. It’s not.

You start, you build momentum, and all these serendipitous moments launch you forward.

But you have to start.

 

Stay Positive & Why Wait For Serendipity When You Can Evoke It?

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There’s a problem with total differentiation.

When you go into a market with the idea that there’s no one else like you, that you’re completely different on all fronts, that there’s no alternative choice for the consumer, you’re left without an anchor.

You’re left without a measurement tool. (Your consumers are too!)

You’re left without the potential of stealing share rather than creating share. (Creating share is much more difficult, while stealing share requires you to be a level about crap.)

You’re left without an external challenge. (The best ideas often come from some sincere competition.)

You’ll attract a few when you’re completely unique, but you make it insanely more difficult to reach the most.

A little competition is a good thing.

 

Stay Positive & You Don’t Need To Be New To Be Remarkable

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About 10 years ago, burning bridges was fairly easy to do.

There was a lot of “X person is trying to screw me over. I’m going to screw him over.”

There was definitely a lot of “this person sucks at doing what they are supposed to do, I’m leaving them to go do it myself.”

The increasing number of burnt bridges is one reason why there were so many new businesses started 10 years ago.

As time waned, businesses quickly realized that they shot themselves in the foot when they burned the bridge to start their own business because they didn’t just burn a bridge between themselves and one other person, they burned the bridges of all those that one person had bridges with.

Talk about a quick realization of stupidity.

Add the internet in and it’s no wonder everyone became determined to connect and build more bridges.

Here’s the lesson: it’s a smaller world than it has ever been.

That’s what the connection economy is about. It’s about making something so vast seem so small and personal and intimately shared.

In the connection economy, there’s no winning when you burn a bridge.

In the connection economy, we compromise when something doesn’t go the way we want, when we begin feeling uncomfortable in a relationship, when we get defensive.

We don’t burn bridges.

 

Stay Positive & Connect, Collaborate, Compromise, And Most Importantly, Overcome

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Getting better at something doesn’t need to be as frustrating as we sometimes make it.

Take kindness for example.

It’s difficult to always be kind. In fact, it’s often counterproductive when you try to be more kind. You wind up frustrated with yourself for not being able to do it, you become short-tempered, you give off the vibe opposite of kindness.

The quickest and most painless way to be more kind is to be less unkind.

Gradually recognize moments you’re being unkind and change them. Have the foresight to know when you’re often unkind and go into that setting with a new perspective.

Many write about being 10 percent better.

Why not start being 10 percent less of the bad stuff?

 

Stay Positive & Getting Better Is Easier Than We Think

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If you’ve been published, but want to switch to self-publishing. It doesn’t make sense to stop everything you’re doing. Craft the longest pro/con list. Shut your doors and work three years on writing a book that will be perfect for the self-publish market of readers.

When you have the fans, the admirers, the other writers you write alongside, it’s best to use that momentum and leap.

The easiest way to change your business model, change your way of doing work, change…period, is when you have momentum built up.

Last year was the best time to start building momentum, but the next best time is now.

Start with what you have, what you can accomplish, and build the momentum you’ll need to change your course. If there’s one guarantee about any industry, it’s that it will change and the only way to stay on track is to build and retain all the momentum you can.

 

Stay Positive & To Change Your Course, You Have To Be Going Down One

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