Author Archives: thevsstudioblog

Whether you receive amazing feedback or awful feedback, they both share one giant trap in common. Attachment. You get attached to that amazing feedback and as a result, not take risks in your future work, so as to continue to please. Or. You get attached to that awful feedback and completely give up. To avoidContinue reading “Amazing and Awful”

I got rhythmI got musicI got my manWho could ask for anything more? -song “I Got Rhythm” by Ethel Merman “What I do has a lot to do with the words….Go over the words, over and over, do them different ways, different inflections and rhythms. For me, rhythm is very important. I think we expressContinue reading “Line Notes”

“If you realize that you have enough, you are truly rich.” –Tao Te Ching by Lao-Tzu (Stephen Mitchell translation) The Rolling Stones are right…You can’t always get what you want. But. You can always want what you have. And. When it comes to making your art, you’ve got what you need. Try sometime. Go makeContinue reading “Want. Have. Need.”

“The impediment to action advances action, what stands in the way becomes the way.” -Marcus Aurelius “I take rejection as someone blowing a bugle in my ear to wake me up and get going, rather than retreat.” -Sylvester Stallone “I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I have lost almost 300 games. OnContinue reading “The Rejection Is The Way”

“The great thing about the band was that whoever had the best idea (it didn’t matter who), that would be the one we’d use. No one was standing on their ego, saying, ‘Well it’s mine,’ and getting possessive. Always, the best was used. That’s why the standard of the songs remained high” -Ringo Starr “MyContinue reading “Peak Artistic Collaboration”

“The ultimate end of human acts is eudaimonia, happiness in the sense of living well, which all men desire; all acts are but different means chosen to arrive at it.” -Hannah Arendt “Among life’s cruelest truths is this one: wonderful things are especially wonderful the first time they happen, but their wonderfulness wanes with repetition.”Continue reading “Eudaimonia”

What if Peter Gibbons really was right? That all you need to be happy is to just stop doing all the things you hate doing. Especially those things you think you need to do. When you really don’t. P.S. – This scene.

“You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.” -James Clear Talking about your big dreams and plans over a hot cup of coffee with a close friend who patiently listens and encourages you is awesome. You’ll leave the conversation feeling amazing. Lit up. Ready toContinue reading “Coffee Talk”

“They’re stuck in a job they don’t like. They’re stuck working for a boss they don’t like. They’re stuck on a team they don’t like…I just tell them, ‘Be great.’ The reality of life is that you can’t just always quit your job. You can’t just always go to your boss and say, ‘Give meContinue reading “How To Get Unstuck”

Under-promising and over-delivering is a great strategy. For a while. Just make sure you’re not continually doing it to let yourself off the hook. Or to hide. To achieve your full potential, it might be time to make some promises you’re not entirely sure you can fulfill. To over-promise. Or to quote the great IrishContinue reading “Time To Over-Promise?”