EXCEPTional

“Art is hard. It never just comes to you. The idea of effortless inspiration is another romantic myth. For amateurs, making art may be a form of recreation, but no one, amateur or professional, who has tried to do it with any degree of seriousness is under the illusion that it’s easy. “A writer,” said Thomas Mann, “is someone for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people.” More difficult, because there is more for you to do, more that you know how to do, and because you hold yourself to higher standards.” – William Deresiewicz, book The Death Of The Artist

“The endless cycle of improvement means that every innovation that raises the average creates the conditions for a new sort of excellence. Using these tools, a new standard setter can find a different way forward and create a different way to raise the bar, one that seems obvious after the fact.” -Seth Godin

If you want to be the exception–the rare person who makes a decent living doing what they love–then strive to only make exceptional work. Especially if what you love is in the arts. (And unfortunately that’s no guarantee, as artistic and commercial success are rarely correlated.)

Even if you could make a living doing mediocre to good work, would you want to?