The Vs. Studio Blog

“Better a diamond with a flaw than a pebble without.” -Confucius

If you’re looking to produce something and you come across a piece of material that lights you up inside but is “flawed”, don’t let that stop you.

Embrace the flaws. Lean into them. Often they’re gifts. Challenges in disguise. If you can navigate them, they can become the takeaway moments for your audience. And you might just have a diamond on your hands.

“Do not expect Plato’s ideal republic; be satisfied with even the smallest step forward, and consider this no small achievement.” -Marucs Aurelius, Meditations

The system or industry you’re in might not be a meritocracy.  You might find many examples where the best idea or person doesn’t actually win the day.

But don’t let that stop you from doing your best. Work as hard as you can.  No stone left unturned.  Strive for excellence and generosity in all that you do. Be your own arbiter. Create your own personal meritocracy.

“There’s no such thing as writer’s block. There’s simply a fear of bad writing. Do enough bad writing and some good writing is bound to show up.” -Seth Godin

How long can you sit down and write,paint, act, etc… feeling that what’s coming out sucks? That it isn’t what you originally envisioned?

The longer you can do it, while trusting that eventually (and the kicker is you never know if or when it’s gonna happen) some good art will materialize, the more productive and happier you’ll be.

“It is not that we have a short time to live, but that we waste a lot of it. Life is long enough, and a sufficiently generous amount has been given to us for the highest achievements if it were all well invested. But when it is wasted in heedless luxury and spent on no good activity, we are forced at last by death’s final constraint to realize that it has passed away before we knew it was passing. So it is: we are not given a short life but we make it short, and we are not ill-supplied but wasteful of it… Life is long if you know how to use it.” -Seneca, On The Shortness Of Life

“Money never sleeps pal.” -Gordon Gekko advising Bud Fox in the movie Wall Street

The things you own…do you own them or do they own you?

Ask yourself what you’ve given up. Start with the single most important asset you have which is your time. How much time have you sacrificed for this ownership?

And what’s the opportunity cost?

Has it been worth it?

Don’t ask a question or seek feedback if you’re not ready to hear a truthful reply.

Otherwise, why are you seeking it?

Maybe you think you’re ready to lead. But until you’ve burned your boat, thrown your hat over the wall and gone all in, don’t expect to anyone else to get behind you.

One thing I love about producing live theatre is that you have to set a date for opening night.

You don’t have to be ready now. You just have to know that you’ll do whatever it takes and be ready when it’s go time.

“The greatest danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it.” -Michelangelo

Maybe you’re not quite giving it everything you got because deep down you’re afraid your best isn’t good enough.

That’s a real fear and it holds us back. Allows us to rely on the crutch of “Well, I didn’t really try my best.”

But don’t you wanna know how you measure up? And have no regrets knowing you left it all out there? You can live with that.

And…what if your best is extraordinary? Something the world’s been waiting for?

The best decisions are often what you eliminate or say “No” to doing.

Similarly, the best art often arises from what you left out.

Consider the last line (maybe one of the best last lines in all of literature) from Hemingway’s A Farewell To Arms:

“After a while I went out and left the hospital and walked back to the hotel in the rain.”

The power of this sentence comes from yes, everything that came before in the novel, but also in all that Hemingway left out here. What he didn’t write. The result is a sentence that is spare and beautiful and haunting and we feel it all.

“You know what the scariest thing is? To not know your place in this world. To not know why you’re here…It’s hard for many people to believe that there are extraordinary things inside themselves, as well as others…Go to where people are. You won’t have to look very long.” -Elijah Price’s advice to David Dunn in the film Unbreakable

“A man can be destroyed, but not defeated.” -from the book The Old Man And The Sea by Ernest Hemingway

You don’t have to be an unbreakable superhero to make a big impact in the world. (Many of our greatest contributors where once broken people who healed themselves, found their purpose and went on to do amazing things.)

But you do have to have an unbreakable spirit.

Find the need and go to it.

Feel like nobody cares about your art?

Good.

You’re free to make what you want. Whatever lights you up inside.

Now go make it.

P.S. – No one will ever care if your aim is to get them to care. They may end up caring because you risked. Because you made something from your heart and had the courage and generosity to share it.