Show Your Work!

Austin Kleon

Amazon

• Through creativity, showing your work and contributing to a community, you're creating an opportunity where your next boss may not have to read your CV. They might read your blog instead
• Rather than be a 'lone genius', be a scenius. Be a part of a 'scene'. Look at history and how so much creativity happened through groups. By having ideas bouncing off one another, people came up with new ideas and created great work
• Be an amateur. Amateurs are in love with what they do. They're not afraid to make mistakes. They're in an endless pursuit. It doesn't matter if the work is mediocre, it can get better through increments. What matters is that it's there, the biggest gap is between doing nothing and doing something
• Artwork - noun and art work - verb. Share the process of creating the work with people. In the digital age, the process no longer needs to be shrouded in mystery
• Share work daily. Focus on days, not years or decades. Slowly build the habit of sharing and afterwards you’ll have a collection
• Own your domain - stake your claim to a part of the internet and share your work on it. Social networks come and go but your own website is there for as long as you want it to be
• Feel free to share your influences and give credit where it's due. You owe it to the people you've shared your work to
• The story behind a piece of art is what gives it its value. Forgeries, although same, are not worth as much because there's no story behind them
• When telling the story, have a proper structure that's grammatically correct and has been proof read
• Don't be afraid to talk about yourself and what you do. When asked about what you do, see it is as an opportunity to connect with somebody
• When talking about yourself, don't use words like 'aspiring'. If you take photos, you're a photographer. Not an 'aspiring photographer'
• Teach. When you learn something, teach it. Don't think that you'll lose value, as though you're giving a way a secret that differentiates you. Consider all of the famous chefs that have cookbooks, if anything, it builds an interest rather than reducing it
• Spam isn't good. Make sure what you're saying is worthwhile and participate in communities. Don't talk, talk, talk. Take time to listen