So I stumbled across a few more articles this week about the creative process and even just business in general that I thought were kind of interesting. The guy who wrote them is a venture capitalist, so there was a lot more on the site that was a bit out of my scope (even though I’m sure they’re equally insightful), but I at least wanted to share these few that I took a particular interest in…
How to Do What You Love
The age-old struggle for artists of all genres – includes a comprehensive look at not only why it’s no surprise that most people don’t like their current jobs, but also the main routes to get into one that you do. Unfortunately, my “two jobs” don’t share much in common, so I tend to follow the two-job route…Maker’s Schedule, Manager’s Schedule
This one I relate to a whole lot at work because we have all sorts of meetings, but I can also see how it can apply to my creative writing because even when I’m approaching my weekend time, it’s a lot harder to get in the right frame of mind to be able to churn out the funnies when I’ve only got an hour or so here and there. Granted, this is odd because most of my columns usually end up taking only an hour or two of work each, but maybe it’s something to do with simply knowing the extra time is there if I need it.Good and Bad Procrastination
My favorite concept in this one: “If you get inspired by some project, it can be a net win to blow off everything you were supposed to do for the next few days to work on it.” Frankly, I run into this kind of thing a lot because right now I’m trying my hand at several different creative ventures to try and feel out what will stick, and I can definitely attest that on any given day, I’m not generally in the right mood to just work on anything I happen to pull out of the pile. My solution thus far is to more or less try to work on what I actually want to work on at a given moment, with the understanding that while some projects may take a little longer to launch with the hopping, it still beats just wasting time sitting around doing nothing because I’m simply not inspired enough to work on what I had “scheduled” for that day.(This is just one aspect of that article – there’s also a lot to take out of errands vs. real work that hits close to home!)
Be Good
This last one is much more start-up related than purely creative, but I still enjoyed it because he touches on some tenets that seem really good for the wanna-be entrepreneur like myself – namely, figure out how to create a good product that people need/want/enjoy and focus on that, rather than simply the money. I’ve already seen this mentality work in other avenues because it makes sense that if you focus on quality, as long as the other elements of your work aren’t total shit, everything else should just fall in line behind you. Of course, there’s a lot more to it than that, but it’s nonetheless definitely something that I’m trying to keep in mind as I attempt to get back into the self-employed swing of things this year!