Just yesterday, the advice paid off to stop grinding, go ‘waste time’ and experience life. For nearly 2 years everyone told me to grind weekends, evenings and holidays. Sacrifice socializing, hobbies and anything that wasn’t advancing my goals. The Alex Hormozi path of business. But they forgot to tell me that doesn’t apply to creative work.
For anything creative, the quality of your product, and how relevant it is to your audience, matters 100x more than the quantity. We are reaching minds and hearts, not digging ditches. Exploring new experiences refills the well that you draw from creating. (Thanks, Lucas Rockwood!)
Last night I ‘blew’ an entire Saturday night to hit the Broadway Honky Tonks with a new professional photographer friend. As a full-time entrepreneur and artist, she added an extra layer of fun by freely sharing her knowledge & experience. I smiled hearing “you are the average of the five people you spend time with” echoed in my head. But this also created a cutting edge that felt a hint like an audition.
When our St. Patrick’s green beers arrived, that new advice paid off. I pulled out my phone to take a picture of it, and asked her for hers.
“Here ya go. But why?”
Like I learned in a cocktail photography class I took purely for fun, a ‘total waste of time’, I turned on her phone’s flashlight and used it for a backlight to make the color in the drink pop.”Woaahhh, that looks cool! I’ve never seen that before.”
Instantly, she knew I was someone who had put work into his craft, someone who cared, and had some competency to share. Visible in an immediate way that wouldn’t have been obvious to someone only interested in the visual arts.
From that moment, the tone of our conversation shifted from teacher and student, to two peers who both had something to offer. Not just socially but also professionally. She raised her level of discussion about her work, and I even think we became closer friends.
