Creative Success Manifesto

THE PRINCIPLE

The journey to creative success is at least as rewarding as arriving

Before you begin your creative endeavour it may help to stop and think about what creative success means to you: its requirements, its costs, its rewards. This is my creative success manifesto – I invite you to make up your own.

1 Success is what you say it is

If getting to number one on the New York Times bestseller list makes you happy, great. If writing a blog that 100 people follow passionately makes you happy, or writing one poem a night that nobody else ever sees, that’s what success is for you. It’s your brain, your heart, your life – don’t let anybody hijack it with their definition of success.

2 Commercial success can take a year or a hundred years

J. K. Rowling got there fast. Van Gogh didn’t. Even finding those 100 passionate followers can take time. Don’t define the journey only by the outcome.

3 Fewer than 1 per cent of people have to buy what you do

Not everybody wants to profit financially from their creative activity, but if you do, if 1 per cent of the people in the USA – 1 person out of 100 – buys what you offer you’ll have more than 3 million sales. In the UK that would be about 600,000. If you happen to live in China, you’re really in luck.

4 Start by finding one person who likes what you do

It helps to have a champion, somebody who believes in you. Your belief in yourself generates 1 unit of self-belief. You plus a champion generates 100. (Psychology maths is different.)

5 Crazy is the first step

Every breakthrough is considered a crackpot idea at first. Of course, some are crackpot ideas. You can’t tell the difference until you transform the idea into something real.

6 Ready, fire, aim

Most creative people want their work to be seen. However, many never take their ideas out into the world because they want to be sure it’s the right time and that they have all the resources they need. It will never be exactly the right time and you may never have all the resources you need. Get a prototype out there, see what happens, adjust and persist.

7 The second best time to start

The best time to start doing your creative work was ten years ago. Look at the clock. What time is it? That’s right, the second best time to start.

8 If at first you don’t succeed, don’t try, try again

At least don’t try the same thing again and again. Hit yourself on the head with a hammer (you may imagine this instead of doing it if you prefer). How did it feel? Do you think it will feel any different if you do it again? If you do, go ahead. If at first you don’t succeed, try something different. Continue until you find the one that works.

9 Failing feels crappy

Motivational speakers make it sound like failing is noble. Maybe it is, but it sure doesn’t feel noble. They claim Edison said something like ‘I didn’t fail 3,000 times to find a workable light bulb filament, I just eliminated 3,000 ways not to do it so that I could find the one that worked.’ I bet around the 2,000th try he threw that bulb to the ground, stomped on it, took a stiff drink and yelled at his wife. Yes, we have to deal with disappointing results and rejection, but we won’t like it.

10 The only way to fail

You can fail only if you stop. If on the last day of your life you still aren’t on the New York Times bestseller list or your blog has only 99 passionate followers, or you never quite got the hang of rhyme scheme, so what? If you believed in what you were doing you probably had a hell of a ride. That’s what it’s all about.