Who Cares?

“A Hard Day’s Night took less than 15 hours from idea to finished record. More Than a Feeling, from Tom Scholz and Boston, took five years. Each pleased their audiences. One is not 1,500 times more valuable than the other.

Sometimes, work that requires effort leads to scarcity, and that scarcity can increase its value. But not always.

And just because we put in effort does not mean we deserve the audience to reciprocate with a similar amount. Seven years to write a Ph.D. thesis but a professor on the committee might spend an hour reading it. The student’s effort is not related to the committee’s.

The mythology of creation seems to beg us to calculate the effort when computing the value. But in practice, buyers rarely do.

If the creation is what the audience needs or wants, it actually doesn’t matter how hard it was to create, or who or what created it.” -Seth Godin

“When you’re a carpenter making a beautiful chest of drawers, you’re not going to use a piece of plywood on the back, even though it faces the wall and nobody will ever see it. You’ll know it’s there, so you’re going to use a beautiful piece of wood on the back. For you to sleep well at night, the aesthetic, the quality, has to be carried all the way through.” -Steve Jobs

“Hard work guarantees you nothing, but without it you don’t stand a chance.” -Pat Riley

Nobody cares how hard you worked on the thing you made. It’s not their job to care.

They only care about the thing you made.

But you, the creator, should very much care. You owe it to them and to yourself.

If not, why even do it in the first place?

Everything Is An Audition

“Everything is an audition…One of the biggest mistakes I see people make is they are too short-sighted…When I’m trying to build something, I pretend it’s an audition for a bigger stage.” -Turney Duff

“The Master gives himself up to whatever the moment brings. He knows that he is going to die, and he has nothing left to hold on to: no illusions in his mind, no resistances in his body. He doesn’t think about his actions; they flow from the core of his being. He holds nothing back from life; therefore he is ready for death, as a man is ready for sleep after a good day’s work.” -Verse 50, Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu (Stephen Mitchell translation)

No matter how last minute, the actor will move heaven and earth to prepare for and make an audition appointment. Especially if it’s for a project they care about. Suddenly all tasks become secondary and in that time, nothing is more important. Talk about focus!

Imagine if you treated everything in life that way? If everything was an audition? At the very least, what about just showing up and being present in every moment and every encounter with another person?

Your whole life will change if you do.

P.S. – This fantastic IG post from my friend Turney.

Hypocrite

“An actor puts on a mask and knows they are acting. But the hypocrite puts one on without even feeling that it is there.” -Unknown

“Actors are the only honest hypocrites.” -William Hazlitt

“Hypocrisy is the most difficult and nerve-racking vice that any man can pursue; it needs an unceasing vigilance and a rare detachment of spirit. It cannot, like adultery or gluttony, be practiced at spare moments; it is a whole-time job.” -W. Somerset Maugham

The word “hypocrite” comes from the ancient Greek word hypokrites, which literally means “an actor” or “a stage player”. Over time, the word moved from describing someone performing on a stage to someone wearing a figurative mask in real life. Someone pretending to be good, moral, or different than they truly are.

Here’s the thing…Even if you could actually win friends and gain influence and power and be loved by pretending to be someone else other than who you really are, would you want to? How exhausting to have to go through life that way.

Keep it real. Save the hypocrisy for the stage.

Simple Acts Of Love

“Miss no single opportunity of making some small sacrifice, here by a smiling look, there by a kindly word; always doing the smallest right and doing it all for love.” -St. Therese of Lisieux

“Thinking about yourself is indistinguishable from suffering. Self consciousness is literally a facet of trait neuroticism.” -Jordan Peterson

If you feel lost and have no idea what to do, then start by performing simple acts of love.

A smile, a kind word, an encouraging note, a random act of generosity, a silent prayer for a stranger, etc…All these things get the focus off yourself and on to someone else. Which will then start to produce joy in you. And when you have joy, you will have clarity about what you should do next. (Chances are, that will be thinking about how to help someone else.)

The Cure For Entitlement

“Don’t demand that things happen as you wish, but wish that they happen as they do happen, and you will go on well….Never say about anything, ‘I have lost it,’ but say, ‘I have given it back.” -Epictetus, Enchiridion

“What do you possess that you have not received?” -1 Corinthians 4:7

“It is not your fault, but it is your responsibility.” -Mark Manson

“Life is entrusted to [a person] as a treasure which must not be squandered, as a talent which must be used well.” -St. John Paul II

There are two other remedies for entitlement:

(1) Gratitude…To look around and truly see everything that’s been given to you. To look at all of life, including periods of suffering, as an immense gift.

(2) Responsibility…What’s been entrusted to you? Your family, your friends, your community, your job, your health, etc…Accept these responsibilities and work at them with all your heart.

Oh and one more thing…remind yourself constantly that you are owed nothing. If you find yourself looking around and feeling slighted or overlooked or that you deserve something, stop. You’re not.

On Point

“Every play you do is a rehearsal for the next play you do.” -Jefferson Mays

“So then learn to conquer your fear. This is the only art we have to master nowadays: to look at things without fear, and to fearlessly do right.” -Friedrich Durrenmatt

Fear not. Fret not.

You’re exactly in the right point you’re supposed to be.

Everything you did before led you to this point.

Everything you do now will lead you to the next point.

Which will also be the exact right point you’re supposed to be.

P.S. – Speaking of being on point…go see The Visit at Pasadena Playhouse. It’s a first-rate production. Jefferson Mays (in my opinion, one of the finest stage actors in the world), Melinda Page Hamilton and the rest of the ensemble are terrific.

Don’t Look Sideways

“How much trouble he avoids who does not look to see what his neighbor says or does or thinks, but only to what he does himself, that it may be just and pure.” -Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

“Comparison is the thief of joy.” -Teddy Roosevelt

Just like the sprinter or swimmer shouldn’t look sideways to see what their competition is doing, you should do likewise.

Stay straight.

Eyes on the prize. (Your prize. Not anyone else’s.)

Forward. Forward. Forward.

You learned.

“If you decide you need $100,000 to be happy, $50,000 feels like a failure. If you decide $40,000 is enough to be happy, suddenly you’re a success. Too often, we forget that failure is just this arbitrary definition we make up in our heads. We decide, “This is what’s going to happen.” And when it doesn’t, we declare it a failure. Then we get pissed—completely forgetting we made the whole damn rulebook up on a whim. Repeat after me: “My failures are self-invented.” -Mark Manson

You didn’t fail. You learned.

The fact that you tried, that you stepped into the arena is the win. Everything else is gravy.

P.S. – This excellent post from Sahil Bloom