Seeing Is Doing

Garth Beyer

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Milton Glaser said, “The great benefit of drawing is that when you look at something, you see it for the first time.”

I like to think this applies to me and my writing the same as it does to you and your form of art.

I could read everything that Malcolm Gladwell has written, then, if I were to type out a story, word-for-word, from one of his articles, I would still be seeing that story for the first time.

Of course, seeing is something much more than observing the image of something, it’s more like seeing into it.

You could craft the same business plan Jeff Bezos has written for Amazon and even after studying every part of it, transposing it would still allow you to see it for the first time.

This concept of fundamental to education. You can be told of a technique or an idea, but you won’t truly see it until you apply it or do it yourself.

 

Stay Positive & Seeing Is Doing, Doing Is Seeing

Garth E. Beyer

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Talent, Finishing, Conversing, And Starting

Garth Beyer

You have no clue just how talented you are.

The two best things you could be doing with your talent is finishing and conversing. These two actions not only compliment you by expressing how talented you are, but they precede growth.

You learn best from finishing. When you finish something, you have the choice to keep it quiet, stick it in the drawer, erase it entirely… or share it, talk with people about it and get feedback. (Both are positive, but you know which produces the greater result.)

The tragedy is that you may also not know how untalented you are. The fear this ignites when faced with being part of a group is enough for you to stop considering it all together.  So, you finish and that’s it.

That was okay to do prior to the connection economy we are in now. 25 years ago, you could stockpile your art and still leave a legacy. Now you never hear of a person who kept everything to herself and became a legend.

I encourage you to get together with someone or a group of people.

In a world that demands you to finish, don’t forget to start something incredible along the way. Eight people getting together to converse about what they have finished. That in and of itself is incredible.

 

Stay Positive & Go

Garth E. Beyer

A Tree Was Cut, But The Lesson From It Was Not

Garth Beyer

There was a tree that meant the world to me. I hugged it, climbed it, and ate PBJ sandwiches in it throughout my childhood. It was how I became known as a monkey.

One day, I woke up from a nap to the sound of chainsaws. The city cut down the tree. I don’t even remember if they kept the stump there. I was devastated.

My only question at the time: why

The answer was that the city had to cut the tree down because part of the tree grew around a telephone line.

I didn’t understand. Why didn’t the city just cut the branches that were engulfing the line and leave the rest of the tree? I wouldn’t mind sacrificing part of my climbing tree if it was between that and having nothing to climb.

Before you cut any plans, any creations, any ideas, ask yourself if you really need to cut the entire thing.

Most of the time you don’t. I suppose I owe this lesson to a tree. I’m okay with that.

 

Stay Positive & Don’t Stop Climbing Or Questioning

Garth E. Beyer

A Fair Place To Find Passion

Garth Beyer

You can write and talk about a lot of things you like, but it’s difficult to do so without sounding like you are promoting it.

When searching for passion (in writing, in creating, in art), find something that makes you angry.

I’ve noticed hundreds of exceptional products made because the inventor was angry that things were the way they were.

Sure, you can find something you love and add to it so that you love it more, but I can’t sense the passion when you do that.

If you communicate to me that you added more frosting to the middle of an oreo, great, I’m sure some people will like that. But, if you get frustrated that they don’t offer enough variety in terms of the flavor of frosting and then go out and create a new frosting, you will certainly get a lot more attention.

(Now is a good time to read about Cheez-Its.)

Remarkable change and creation stem from passion, and who is to say that anger is not a fair place to find passion?

 

Stay Positive & Count To 10, Then Do Something About It

Garth E. Beyer

Yea, You Are In Control

Garth Beyer

You have certain tasks you have to do. You have standards, deadlines or quotes that you have to meet. You may not have control of what you have to do.

But you do have control of how you do it. (Yes, even when you think you don’t!)

The reason you always have control of how you do it, even if you were given specific instructions to follow, is that what those instructions produce could be better. It’s not remarkable people who discover ways to improve something. It’s those who discover ways to improve something that become remarkable.

You are in control. Better start believing (and acting!) on it.

 

Stay Positive & How Will You Do It?

Garth E. Beyer

Repetition Repetition Repetition

Garth Beyer

Give them something to repeat to others.

That is what is being called forward with you and your work or art. Whether it’s a story about how you have gotten to where you are at or how your creation makes people feel, there has to be something that people can repeat to others.

After all, your rate of success is based on the number of times someone repeats something positive about you to another.

 

Stay Positive & Remember, No One Made It Big Without Being Talked About

Garth E. Beyer

What’s Your Junk

Garth Beyer

It’s time to clean up: your mind, your home, your hallways.

What junk do you have? The answer to that is your starting place.

Now think of what you could create out of that junk that has a realistic purpose, that you could possibly sell or market?

 

If you thought deeply about these questions. You will realize that the list of items you thought were junk in the first question got longer when you thought about the second question. Suddenly the metal figurine you have has become “junk” because you could combine it with the putty you have in your drawer.

This takes recycling to an entirely new level.

New ideas, I would argue, are just the result of reorganized or modified junk ideas. It’s incredible what happens when you consider more items or thoughts to be junk status. Being handed a box of 6 odd objects (junk) and told to create something worthy out of them is much more difficult to do if you were handed a box of 60 odd objects (more junk) and told to create something worthy from them.

Maybe it’s not junk, but no one tweaks with treasure, do they? Keep in mind, believing that something is a treasure limits what you have to work with in your box of junk.

 

Stay Positive & One Person’s Treasure Is Another Person’s Junk

Garth E. Beyer