0:00

Once upon a time in a

0:02

remote village there was a young

0:05

archer who worked tirelessly to master

0:07

his craft. From a young age

0:09

he practiced rigorously to become so

0:11

skilled, so accurate, that he eventually

0:13

surpassed even his master. Unsatisfied to

0:16

stop there, he decided to leave

0:18

his small village in search of

0:20

a new master, one who could

0:22

hone and perfect his abilities. From

0:24

town to town he roamed, yet

0:26

he was met with disappointment after

0:29

disappointment. After years of searching he

0:31

nearly surrendered until one day when

0:33

roaming the forest he noticed an

0:35

arrow lodged into the center of

0:37

a target affixed to a tree

0:40

trunk. It was a perfect bullseye.

0:42

Impressive. Journeying on he found another

0:44

and another and another until there

0:46

were too many to count. In

0:48

every direction he was surrounded by

0:51

perfectly placed arrow after perfectly placed

0:53

arrow. Finally, he had found the

0:55

master he had been searching for

0:57

all these many years. He sprinted

0:59

as fast as he could to

1:02

the nearest village and begged every

1:04

passer-by, please, I must reach this

1:06

master one greater than I. Upon

1:08

kneeling in this newfound master's feet,

1:10

he made his request. Good sir,

1:12

your skills are unmatched. Please reveal

1:15

to me the secret of your

1:17

technique. The master replied, well, it's

1:19

quite simple, my son. I first

1:21

fire the arrow. and that I

1:23

paint the bullseye around it. When

1:26

it comes to ideas, it seems

1:28

like some people just know how

1:30

to hit the center of the

1:32

target time and time again. They

1:34

consistently strike brilliance. How do they

1:37

do it? Are they cheating or

1:39

are they just really that good?

1:41

And how can mere mortals like

1:43

us become masters of our craft

1:45

too? On today's show, we learned

1:47

the secret to coming up with

1:50

more ideas and better ideas, not

1:52

just for now, but for years

1:54

to come. This is Daily Creative.

1:56

My name is Todd Henry. Welcome

1:58

to the show. The

2:05

sun is shining, the smells of

2:07

hot dogs, peanuts, and America's favorite

2:10

pastime are in the air. It's

2:12

the bottom of the ninth, and

2:14

the home team is trailing by

2:17

one. With two outs and a

2:19

runner at first, the batter steps

2:21

up to the plate. But not

2:24

just any batter, a record setter.

2:26

Unfortunately, it's just not the record

2:28

you're hoping for. This

2:32

particular batter holds the

2:35

record for the most

2:38

strikeouts in a single

2:40

season. At the moment

2:43

you need the best,

2:45

you're stuck with the

2:47

worst. Strike one. Strike

2:49

two. Strike. It's a high

2:52

fly ball to center field.

2:59

As the game-winning runner rounds third and

3:02

heads for home, the crowd basks

3:04

in the glory and the euphoria

3:06

of the miracle they just witnessed.

3:08

Only it wasn't necessarily as miraculous

3:11

as you might think. In fact,

3:13

a lot of fans expected nothing

3:15

less from this particular batter, because

3:18

even though he's the worst, he

3:20

just so happens to also be

3:22

the greatest of all time. In

3:24

1929, Babe Ruth broke the record for

3:26

the most home runs in a

3:28

single season. 60. By the end of

3:31

his career, he would amass 714 total

3:33

home runs. They don't call him the

3:35

Sultan of Swat, the Great Bambino, for

3:38

nothing. But in that same season, he

3:40

won the home run title. He broke

3:42

another record. In 1929, Babe Ruth

3:44

struck out more times than any other

3:47

player in Major League Baseball. In fact,

3:49

by the time he retired in 1935,

3:51

he held the all-time strikeout record

3:53

with 1,330, a record that would

3:56

stand for nearly 30 years until

3:58

it was broken by Mickey Mantle

4:00

in 1964. The greatest home run

4:02

hitter of the entire first half

4:04

of the 20th century struck out

4:06

nearly twice as much as he

4:08

sent it over the fence. Do

4:10

the math. At three pitches per

4:13

strikeout that's nearly 4,000 swings that

4:15

came to nothing. And that's not

4:17

just counting all the at-bats where

4:19

he got a strike but didn't

4:21

strike out. Likely thousands more. Baseball

4:23

is a funny sport. It literally

4:25

takes thousands upon thousands of swings

4:27

just to get a few hundred

4:29

home runs. And if a player

4:31

has a batting average of about

4:33

300, they're going to the Hall

4:35

of Fame. Two-thirds of the time

4:37

you step up to the plate,

4:39

you don't even get it hit.

4:41

And you're considered one of the

4:43

best to ever play. Well, the

4:45

truth is, creative work is a

4:47

funny sport too. It's tempting to

4:49

look at all of the home

4:51

runs of other players in the

4:54

league and forget about all the

4:56

strikes it took just to land

4:58

one arrow on the bullseye to

5:00

mix metaphors. If you want to

5:02

do brilliant work, there's no way

5:04

around it. You have to take

5:06

a lot of swings. The question

5:08

is, what's stopping you? Overthinking. If

5:10

we can get as quickly as

5:12

we can from imagination to action,

5:14

we get farther with the idea.

5:16

All of those things we do

5:18

to talk ourselves out of ideas

5:20

don't have time to take hold.

5:22

That's Becky Blaze. She's the author

5:24

of Start More Than You Can

5:26

Finish, a creative permission slip to

5:29

unleash your best ideas. I am

5:31

good at starting things. I lamented

5:33

and had a lot of shame

5:35

about all the things I didn't

5:37

finish. Perhaps because I ran a

5:39

creative business, I had a marketing

5:41

firm for many years, and I

5:43

had learned to put value monetizing

5:45

and putting value on creative time

5:47

so whatever didn't get used seemed

5:50

like a waste. If you listened

5:52

to last week's episode, this is

5:54

a theme that comes up over

5:56

and over again in Creative Work.

5:58

Over optimization. One of the negative

6:00

side effects of, quote, billing time

6:02

is that any time that isn't

6:04

directly billable looks like a waste.

6:06

By the way, I'm not naive.

6:08

Sometimes that's exactly what it is.

6:11

But that system has a way

6:13

of conditioning us to fixate on

6:15

avoiding waste instead of pursuing brilliance.

6:17

Avoiding strikes instead of swinging for

6:19

the fences. The net result being

6:21

that we think long and hard,

6:23

often too long and hard, about

6:25

whether or not we should start

6:27

something. Will it be worth it?

6:29

Is it a good idea? What

6:32

if it's not? How can I

6:34

justify the investment? Why should I

6:36

choose to work on this idea

6:38

over that idea? But one of

6:40

the biggest most problematic questions we

6:42

use to justify not taking action

6:44

is this. Why would I start

6:46

something if I'm not absolutely certain

6:48

I could or even should finish

6:50

it? This is such a dangerous

6:53

question if for no other reason,

6:55

then it's one of the questions

6:57

that sounds strategic. The fact is,

6:59

so many of us sacrifice our

7:01

best ideas on the altar of

7:03

responsibility. We hear the voices, there

7:05

they go again, why can't they

7:07

be more disciplined? When are they

7:09

going to grow up and finish

7:11

what they started? I went through

7:14

in an introspective time, I actually

7:16

counted my unfinished work, I did

7:18

a self-analysis, and then I came

7:20

to understand that my ability to

7:22

act on my ideas is really

7:24

an amazing strength. I studied old

7:26

masters, I studied old composers, and

7:28

really one example would be Mozart,

7:30

who didn't have a better hit

7:32

rate than any of his contemporaries,

7:35

he just started more music. So

7:40

the archer in the woods had more

7:42

bullseyes because he shot more arrows. Babe

7:44

Ruth had more home runs because he

7:46

took more swings. As a result, do

7:49

you have a lot of strikeouts? Sure,

7:51

a record-breaking amount. But he didn't hit

7:53

more home runs in spite of his

7:55

strikeouts. He hit more home runs because

7:58

of them. Talented people need to take

8:00

more swings. I've finished a lot of

8:02

things, but it really occurred to me

8:04

that in both our creative work

8:06

and life, saying focus on the

8:08

finish and finishes planned and don't

8:10

take on more than you can

8:13

finish, does not make us finish

8:15

more. It just makes us start

8:17

less. What if you took this

8:19

seriously? I mean, what if you

8:21

stop putting all the value on

8:23

the finish and instead saw the

8:25

start for what it really is? What

8:27

if you have permission to start

8:29

as many things as you want?

8:32

Guilt-free? No judgment. One system

8:34

I recommend is to start

8:36

starting something every day to try

8:38

to get a feel for how easily

8:40

some ideas come out of you and

8:43

how you recognize that an idea doesn't

8:45

have legs and kind of use a

8:47

system that's easy for you. I have

8:49

a wild idea system. I'll

8:52

write the big audacious wildest

8:54

idea and what problems it's

8:56

solving and then go into what would

8:58

that mean for me? How much joy

9:00

and passion does that give me? Really,

9:02

in about 30 minutes, I can realize

9:05

that, oh, this sounds fun to talk

9:07

about, but at this stage in life,

9:09

I'm probably not going to do this.

9:11

But here's the fun thing. We're really

9:13

talking about honoring our ideas. As I

9:15

think you wrote in one of your

9:17

books, we are not always meant to

9:19

finish every idea we come up

9:22

with. Some ideas are meant for

9:24

the universe. we can hand them

9:26

off. Also you think about the

9:28

fact that some of the biggest

9:30

ideas in history were never finished

9:32

in a person's lifetime. The cathedrals.

9:35

The research was not finished by

9:37

one person in one lifetime. So

9:39

sometimes just starting is the joy,

9:41

is the exploration. We don't have

9:43

to get all our gratification from

9:46

the trophy and the finish. You

9:48

can hear my full interview with

9:50

Becky Blades where she explains her

9:52

process for starting more than you

9:54

can finish in the Daily Creative

9:56

app at Daily Creative. app. So

10:00

let's say you're someone who's willing

10:02

to throw caution to the wind

10:05

and start more, finish or not.

10:07

Is that all it takes to

10:09

punch your ticket to brilliance, notoriety,

10:12

and industry accolades? Well, probably not.

10:14

On a chilly morning, December 17th,

10:16

1903, near the dunes of Kittyhawk,

10:19

North Carolina, two brothers changed the

10:21

course of human history. Orville and

10:23

Wilbur Wright were self-taught inventors and

10:26

visionaries who refused to believe that

10:28

if God wanted humans to fly

10:30

he would have given them wings.

10:32

For years they poured over the

10:34

work of their predecessors and tinkered

10:36

in their bicycle shop where they'd

10:39

been quietly engineering the impossible.

10:41

As the right flyer, a fragile

10:43

fabrication of wooden cloth sat on

10:45

the dunes poised for takeoff. Orville

10:47

sat poised to man the world's

10:49

first successful flight of a heavier

10:52

than air aircraft. The

10:54

first flight lasted 12 seconds

10:56

and covered 120 feet. Later that

10:59

day Wilber took his turn. Back

11:01

and forth they went making

11:03

four flights in total, the

11:05

longest lasting 59 seconds

11:07

and covering 852 feet. It

11:09

was the start of something big.

11:11

Orville and Wilber had grit,

11:14

determination, vision, courage, and perseverance.

11:16

But you know what? They

11:18

didn't have a pilot's license. Write

11:21

the book you need to read right

11:23

now. Like whatever book you need or

11:25

like whatever book you need to write

11:27

or like whatever book you need to

11:30

write. Like write it right now. Don't

11:32

think, oh, you know, I'll get a

11:34

few years under my belt. Then I'll

11:36

sit down and write it. It's like

11:38

whatever's calling to you. Just write it.

11:41

Just write it. I was about to write a

11:43

book right before the pandemic hit. And then I

11:45

was like, oh, I can't do it now. The

11:47

pandemic. Oh, my kids are home, you know. And

11:49

like, if I had just sat down and wrote

11:51

the book that I need to read right then,

11:53

it'd be here. And I'd have done my future

11:56

self a favor and all my readers a favor

11:58

too. You know, so it's like that. like

12:00

I feel like I'm grateful to that

12:02

dude back then for putting down steel

12:04

like an artist and being unafraid you

12:06

know being unafraid because now I'm very

12:09

afraid like I have a lot to

12:11

lose now there's just something really powerful

12:13

about that. If there's one thing we're

12:15

all good at it's coming up with

12:18

sensible reasons why we shouldn't do something

12:20

no matter how determined you are to

12:22

start starting more today don't be surprised

12:24

at how easy it is to convince

12:27

yourself to punt to tomorrow. My advice

12:29

to you, start more and act now. And

12:31

as you do, you'll discover that there

12:33

are plenty of things you started

12:35

that you're not going to finish.

12:37

Congratulations, because you'll also find many

12:40

more things that are worth persevering

12:42

for. Especially if you embrace what

12:44

I've personally found to be the

12:46

key to pursuing brilliance. Creating

12:49

in parallel. It's an inevitable consequence.

12:51

The more you start, the more

12:53

you'll have going. Even if you

12:55

choose not to finish most of it.

12:57

For a lot of us, that's unsettling

13:00

because it feels like we're dividing

13:02

our attention and undermining our productivity.

13:04

You chase two hairs and you catch

13:06

neither. And it's not that you can't

13:08

create sequentially like that. I call that

13:10

chain smoking. There's like an ember of

13:12

the last thing that used to light

13:15

up the next one. And that you

13:17

can sail through ten years doing that.

13:19

You know, that's like how Joanie Mitchell

13:21

says she works. She says... you know,

13:23

whatever I didn't cover, whatever weird thing

13:26

popped up in the last album that

13:28

didn't feel finished or addressed, that's what

13:30

I used to light up the next

13:32

one. So again, it's not that you

13:34

can't create sequentially chain smoking style as

13:36

Austin calls it, but also give yourself

13:39

permission to create in parallel. This concept

13:41

came up in my conversation with Andy

13:43

J. Pizza, illustrator and host to

13:45

the creative Peptok podcast, as well

13:48

as a New York Times best-selling

13:50

author. I was asking about how do you know

13:52

what book to write? And I loved your

13:54

answer of like, well, you don't have to

13:56

just write one at a time. And I

13:58

think that gets set up. real cultural myth.

14:00

This idea that you need to be

14:03

working on your next album and whatever

14:05

that album is or your next song

14:07

or whatever it is, like, you know,

14:09

you're on the assembly line, this piece

14:12

goes on to that piece, that piece,

14:14

and there's a very strict order, whereas

14:16

it was kind of revolutionary to start

14:18

thinking about it the way that you

14:20

were describing where you don't have to

14:23

just pick a book and write it,

14:25

you're probably gonna do a few. Personally,

14:29

this is how I create. I write multiple

14:31

books at once over long periods of

14:33

time and fits and starts. No pun

14:35

intended. Some may say that that's not

14:37

the right way to do it, but

14:39

it works for me. So if you need

14:42

someone to tell you it's okay for

14:44

you to work that way as well,

14:46

I'd be happy to be that voice.

14:48

In the end, the goal is to

14:50

start more and take action. So any

14:52

advice that makes it harder for you

14:54

to do that? Eh? Maybe not such

14:56

good advice. Do what works for you. But

14:58

there's one thing we haven't addressed

15:01

yet, which is sustainability. Not the save

15:03

the planet kind of sustainability. I more

15:05

so mean, sticking with it. It's one

15:07

thing to start more and act now,

15:10

but doing that for the long haul

15:12

means avoiding some of the common traps

15:14

that sideline us. In other words, what

15:16

do you watch out for as you

15:19

fight to keep going? Tim Robinson

15:21

recently won a golden globe for his

15:23

show, I think you should leave. a

15:26

sketch comedy show known for its not

15:28

safe for work humor and all around

15:30

absurdity. Not that he's recommending you check

15:32

it out, but Andy J. Pizza is

15:34

a fan. One of my favorite skits from

15:37

there is something that he did and wrote

15:39

on Saturday Night Live. He was a Saturday

15:41

Night Live writer. It made it to air.

15:43

It was on one of the shows on

15:46

one of the biggest shows in the world.

15:48

And guess what? He just basically

15:50

did it again. Almost verbatim. He

15:52

didn't even he didn't star in

15:54

the Saturday Live one. So he's in

15:57

the actual skin this one. But guess

15:59

what? No one. cared, no one knew,

16:01

anybody that did know, like, hey,

16:03

that's the same skit, felt amazing

16:05

to be a super fan. That's like,

16:07

oh, man, you never gonna know that

16:10

that's actually a skit that he did

16:12

that he wrote for a minute live.

16:14

And so yeah, I try to embody

16:16

that like, look, no one's watching

16:18

me that close. That's what I

16:20

know. No, no one cares to

16:22

that degree. And that frees you

16:24

up because, first of all, because

16:27

first of all, You can just make

16:29

huge mistakes because nobody's paying

16:31

attention to that degree. One of

16:33

the biggest problems that will make

16:35

you want to stop before you've even

16:37

started is the fear of public perception.

16:40

Not just the perception of you as

16:42

someone who starts more than they can

16:44

finish, but the perception of the work

16:47

you're creating once it leaks out, and

16:49

it eventually will. What if they don't

16:51

like it? What if it feels too

16:53

imperfect? What if it feels... too familiar,

16:56

too similar to something you've done before.

16:58

But letting that stop you is tragic

17:00

because frankly it's all bark and no

17:02

bite. Believe it or not the world

17:05

has better things to do than to

17:07

obsess over your every move. Honestly

17:09

no one's watching that closely. They've

17:11

got far too many other things

17:13

buying for their attention. If Tim

17:15

Robinson can recycle an idea for

17:17

an audience of millions in an

17:20

attempt to simply keep going, keep

17:22

producing... Surely that's permission for you

17:24

to take a deep breath, relax,

17:26

and press publish. And as you

17:28

do, pay special attention to what

17:30

Andy calls the ideas that won't

17:32

leave you alone. All too often,

17:34

we stop working simply because we're

17:36

just not sure what to keep

17:38

working on. With so many new

17:41

ideas sprouting up, indecision gets the

17:43

best of us. He says there's

17:45

a way to overcome that indecision

17:47

and to identify the ideas that

17:50

are worth sticking with. If it

17:52

doesn't let me go, if I

17:54

can't get enough conversation around it,

17:56

when the passion for the idea

17:59

outlives the... my wife will talk to

18:01

me about it. Or my friend, if we go

18:03

to the bar or go to the coffee shop

18:05

or whatever, and I'm like, okay, they're done

18:07

with this, I'm not. I need more.

18:09

That's usually what I have to focus

18:11

on. And my book Invisible Things is

18:14

a great example of that because it

18:16

just would not let go. And so,

18:18

you know, 10 years later, the picture

18:20

book comes out because it just wouldn't

18:22

let me. I just wouldn't let me

18:25

give it up. Some ideas are like

18:27

trick candles on the top of your

18:29

birthday cake. Just when you think you

18:32

snuff them out, they re-ignite.

18:34

Take that as a sign. Those

18:36

may be the keepers. And though

18:38

I wish I could tell

18:40

you how to anticipate those

18:43

ideas and plan accordingly, you

18:45

just never know where they're

18:48

going to come from. But

18:50

don't let that stop you.

18:52

You're jumping from one

18:54

thing to the next, not

18:57

knowing. He's an expert when

18:59

it comes to creativity, innovation,

19:01

and critical thinking. He's also

19:03

a rocket scientist. If anyone was

19:06

smart enough to know what's next,

19:08

it's for all. Yet, he says...

19:10

Life is more of a jungle

19:12

gym, not a ladder. There's a quote

19:14

from roomy that I love. He says,

19:16

as you start to walk on

19:18

the way appears. The implication being

19:20

that the way is not going

19:23

to appear until you actually start

19:25

walking. Think so many people want

19:27

to see the precise destination and

19:29

want to know all of the

19:31

twists and turns with perfect clarity

19:33

and perfect information before they even

19:35

start walking. Which means they never

19:38

move, which means the status quo

19:40

sticks. But life ends up lighting

19:42

the path ahead only a few

19:44

steps at a time. And as

19:46

you take each step, you go

19:48

from not knowing to knowing, from

19:50

darkness to lights. And the only

19:53

way to know what comes next

19:55

is to start walking before you

19:57

think you're ready. I

20:00

hope that you walk away from this

20:02

episode with the courage you need to

20:04

take more swings, to fire more arrows,

20:07

to put more work into the world.

20:09

Don't be afraid to start more

20:11

than you can finish. Make the

20:13

thing that you need, as Austin

20:15

Cleon suggested. As Andy J. Pizza

20:18

told us, work in parallel because

20:20

you never know which idea might

20:22

take off. And pay special attention

20:25

to the ideas that just won't

20:27

leave you alone. Finally, as Ozon

20:29

Verall encouraged, recognized that the road

20:31

often will not appear until you

20:34

begin walking. So, get started. If

20:36

you'd like to hear full interviews

20:38

with Becky Blades, Austin Cleon,

20:40

Andy J. Pizza, and Ozon

20:42

Verall, you can find them

20:44

in the Daily Creative app,

20:46

at Daily Creative dot app,

20:49

and listen to Andy J.

20:51

Pizza's podcast called Creative Pep Talk,

20:53

where I was a recent guest. On

20:56

next week's episode, we're going to

20:58

talk about creating well with others,

21:00

because that's a critical part of our

21:02

process. If you enjoy this episode,

21:04

please leave us a rating or

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review wherever you list the podcasts.

21:08

It helps others find the show.

21:10

Or subscribe to the app at

21:12

Daily Creative.app, where you can get

21:14

full interviews, daily episodes, courses, and

21:16

much, much more. Daily Creative is

21:18

produced by Joshua Gott, who is also

21:21

our chief story architect. My name is

21:23

Todd Henry. Thanks so much for listening.