The Vs. Studio Blog

“Compound interest is the eighth wonder of the world. He who understands it, earns it … he who doesn’t … pays it.” ― Albert Einstein

“Warren Buffett’s fortune isn’t due to just being a good investor, but being a good investor since he was literally a child.” -Morgan Housel, book The Psychology Of Money

If you want to be wealthy, then save as much as you can, as early as you can, for as long as you can. And, consistently invest your savings no matter what “the market” is doing. That’s it, that’s the secret.

Make time and consistency your two best friends. They will serve you well. Not just for making money, but anything you wish to accomplish.

“I’m always thinking about creating. My future starts when I wake up in the morning and see the light.” -Miles Davis

“What a strange thing to consider imagining a world into being with nothing but words, intention, and desire.” -Blake Crouch, book Dark Matter

Definition of Create (Merriam Webster):

1: to bring into existence

2: (a) to invest with a new form, office, or rank

(b) to produce or bring about by a course of action or behavior

3: cause, occasion

4: (a) to produce through imaginative skill

(b) design

Etymology of Create:

create (v.)
“to bring into being,” early 15c., from Latin creatus, past participle of creare “to make, bring forth, produce, procreate, beget, cause,” related to Ceres and to crescere “arise, be born, increase, grow,” from PIE root *ker- (2) “to grow.” De Vaan writes that the original meaning of creare “was ‘to make grow’, which can still be found in older texts ….” Related: Created; creating. also from early 15c.

There are tons of creation myths out there.

What links them all is the desire to CREATE something. Or, MAKE something. In many cases, to PRODUCE something that wasn’t there before (“Ex Nihilio”).

If you too are feeling that desire right now, trust in it. It’s primal and has been with us since the beginning of time itself.

And then, take action. Give life to that desire. Don’t let it die inside you.

Go CREATE Your Art.

…Few are chosen.”

The old adage of “Many are called. Few are chosen.” definitely applies to the arts. Certainly when it comes to having a sustained career or commercial success.

But one way to avoid luck, randomness and gatekeepers from affecting your happiness and ability to lead an artistic life, is to choose yourself.

So let’s amend that adage. Ready for it? Here we go…

“Many are called. Few are chosen. Therefore, I choose myself.”

All together now…

“Many are called. Few are chosen. Therefore, I choose myself.”

Once more, with feeling!

“Many are called. Few are chosen. Therefore, I choose myself.”

That’s the spirit. Now you’re cooking.

“Many are called. Few are chosen. Therefore, I choose myself.”

Go Make Your Art.

“A well-designed life is a life that is generative—it is constantly creative, productive, changing, evolving, and there is always the possibility of surprise.” -Bill Burnett and Dave Evans, book Designing Your Life

..is not always good advice.

At least, not according to authors Bill Burnett and Dave Evans.

They argue, and cite research that backs this up, that only about 20 percent of people know exactly what they want to do in life and are passionate about this one thing.

Most people like several things. They can do several things. They might not have an all-out, burning desire to do just one.

So what to do if you’re part of the 80 percent?

Burnett and Evans argue in their excellent book, Designing Your Life, to start thinking like a designer. Try things. (This is where the 100 hour rule again might be useful.) Make things. Build prototypes. Explore various career options. Interview people. See if you’re gaining traction anywhere.

All the while, pay attention to your feelings. Does anything particularly excite and interest you? If yes, give that some more attention. There’s a whole bunch of other great specific and strategic advice in the book. Check it out.

And if you’re like me, part of the 20 percent who are super passionate about something and want to do it for the rest of their lives, (in my case, that’s acting and making art with my friends) congratulations, you’ve found your calling. It’s a blessing and a curse. But you’re doing it. Find a way, by any means necessary, to…

Just. Keep. Doing it.

“Letting it happen is not making it happen. It is not trying hard.”
― W. Timothy Gallwey, The Inner Game of Tennis: The Classic Guide to the Mental Side of Peak Performance

“Source makes available. The filter distills. The vessel receives. And often this happens beyond our control.” -Rick Rubin, The Creative Act

Every useful training method, system, trick, process, exercise, prompt, etc…boils down to this:

How do I bypass the conscious (or ego) mind and allow the subconscious to take over?

Whatever works. (Maybe it’s meditation or doing the Artist Way morning pages or primal screaming or Tibetan dream yoga or going for a run or doing nothing at all.) Whatever allows you to access that subconscious state and stay in it for as long as possible. Use it.

Let it happen.

The Subconscious is the Way to great and lasting art. The only Way.

Trying to control the future
is like trying to take the master carpenter’s place.
When you handle the master carpenter’s tools,
chances are that you’ll cut your hand. –Tao Te Ching by Lao-Tzu (Stephen Mitchell Translation)

“I never looked back, although I had many uneasy periods looking forward.” -Raymond Chandler

“There is nothing so certain in our fears that’s not yet more certain in the fact that most of what we dread comes to nothing.” -Seneca

“A poor farmer’s horse ran off into the country of the barbarians. All his neighbors offered their condolences, but his father said, “How do you know that this isn’t good fortune?” After a few months the horse returned with a barbarian horse of excellent stock. All his neighbors offered their congratulations, but his father said, “How do you know this isn’t a disaster?”. The two horses bred, and the family became rich in fine horses. The farmer’s son spent much of his time riding them; one day he fell off and broke his hipbone. All his neighbors offered the farmer their condolences, but his father said, “How do you know that this isn’t good fortune?” Another year passed, and the barbarians invaded the frontier. All the able-bodied young men were conscripted, and nine-tenths of them died in the war. Thus good fortune can be disaster and vice versa. Who can tell how events will be transformed?” -story from The Huai Nan Tzu

When you get rejected or are going through difficult times, it’s pointless to ask why this happened or what this means or what the future will be.

Also, perhaps your timing and judgment is off. What seems awful right now might be the best thing that could’ve ever happened.

Double down on your belief in self and the art you’re trying to do. Make Trust and Surrender your two greatest allies. Head down. Keep going.

Yelena: I’m dying of boredom. Is there nothing to do?

Sofya: There’s no lack of things to do. If you wished to do them?

Yelena: Tell me one.

Sofya: Teach. Treat the sick. Care for the Estate.

Yelena: …mmm…hmm…

Sofya: Much to do. (Pause.) When you and Papa weren’t here. Uncle and I would go to the market and sell flour.

Yelena: I wouldn’t know how. And, besides, it doesn’t interest me. In ideological novels people jump up and declare they’re going to Teach, or treat the sick. But how should I do that? Just, suddenly…just…

Sofya: If you did it, you’d be drawn to it. Oh, yes, my darling. -excerpt from the play Uncle Vanya by Anton Chekhov (David Mamet adaptation)

If you get a strong instinct for something you might want to do or try…before spending time thinking about it or imagining how it might make you feel, and then most likely talking yourself out of it…DO it. Give it a little bit of time (like a 40 day challenge, hint, hint). Then EVALUATE it. Otherwise, you haven’t given it or yourself a fair shot.

Who doesn’t like a good challenge? Especially one that’s specific and time bound. In the spirit of Lent which begins today, as well as my recent post about The 100 Hour Rule, I thought I’d propose a 40 day challenge. Here it is…

Pick a goal or habit or project, anything you’ve been thinking about doing, and for the next 40 days, do the following:

-Take daily, consistent action towards it. Even if it’s only 5 minutes on certain days because of scheduling, do it every day. If all hell breaks loose and you miss a day, don’t be hard on yourself. Just make sure to get back on the horse the next day. As James Clear advises in his excellent book Atomic Habits, whatever you have to do, by any means necessary, do not miss two days in a row.

-Visualize yourself accomplishing said goal, and more importantly, enjoying the process.

–Pay attention to your feelings. At the end of each day, write down a few thoughts about how working on the goal made you feel. Good and bad. if you’re hating it, keep going. It’s only 40 days. See if that initial negative feeling ever turns positive. (Is it a “this too shall pass” feeling?)

That’s it. That’s the challenge. 

At the end of the 40 days, decide if you want to keep going. If you’re digging it, can you make it 60 days? Or how about 90 days and turn it into a “quarter commitment”? Do I hear 120 days? How about 6 months? Ohmigoodness…a full year? Wowza.

Or just as likely, you get to the end of the 40 days and you’re done. It wasn’t what you thought it would be, and you’d like to try something else. Cool. No matter what, you can feel really good about yourself. (a) You practiced the discipline of commitment. For 40 days, which is a lot. (b) You experimented. You took something you were merely thinking about and activated it. Now you can properly evaluate it. (c) You learned a lot. Depending on how much time you spent on this goal or project, you might be really close or even have fulfilled your 100 hours. Now your top 5 percent!

Alright. Good luck. I’m rooting for you!

P.S. – If you accept this challenge, feel free to email me what your 40 day goal is. I’ll be your best accountability partner.

P.P.S. – This excellent HBR article on “timeboxing”. Ranked as the single greatest productivity hack. (H/t to my friend Chris for sending.)

“Put your heart aside. Duty comes first. But when fulfilling your duty, put your heart into it. It helps.” -Saint Josemaría Escrivá

“Never shirk the proper dispatch of your duty, no matter if you are freezing or hot, groggy or well-rested, vilified or praised, not even if dying or pressed by other demands. Even dying is one of the important assignments of life and, in this as in all else, make the most of your resources to do well the duty at hand.” -Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

“Good people will do what they find honorable to do, even if it requires hard work; they’ll do it even if it causes them injury; they’ll do it even if it will bring danger. Again, they won’t do what they find base, even if it brings wealth, pleasure, or power. Nothing will deter them from what is honorable, and nothing will lure them into what is base.” -Seneca, Moral Letters

“Character–the willingness to accept responsibility for one’s own life–is the source from which self-respect springs.” -Joan Didion

“On those mornings you struggle with getting up, keep this thought in mind—I am awakening to the work of a human being. Why then am I annoyed that I am going to do what I’m made for, the very things for which I was put into this world? Or was I made for this, to snuggle under the covers and keep warm? It’s so pleasurable. Were you then made for pleasure? In short, to be coddled or to exert yourself?” -Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

“Do your job.” -Bill Belichick

Very often the only reason to do something is because you said you would do it. It’s your job, your responsibility, your duty.

Let that be all the motivation you need.

“Above all else, the mentat must be a generalist, not a specialist. It is wise to have decisions of great moment monitored by generalists. Experts and specialists lead you quickly into chaos.” -Frank Herbert, Dune

You’re probably familiar with the 10,000 hour rule as popularized by Malcom Gladwell in his book Outliers. Roughly stated, the rule is this:

To achieve mastery in something, it takes 10,000 hours of practice. 

(Side note: Gladwell got this number from Anders Ericsson’s research. He thinks Gladwell may have misinterpreted the research and also, it specifically should be deliberate practice, not just practice. But that’s another story.)

Unless you’re young and know exactly what you want to do, the thought of putting in 10,000 hours towards something right now, at this stage in your life, with all your responsibilities, might be a buzz kill. 

But wait, I’ve good news! Very good news!!

There’s another rule, a lesser known rule, called the 100 hour rule. Ready for it? It states:

If you spend 100 hours a year–which is 18 minutes a day–in any discipline, you’ll be better than 95% of the world, in that discipline.

100 hours = Top 5 percent?…What?!…Okay, now you’re talking.

Hopefully the 100 hour rule inspires you to take action on any new skill you’d like to acquire, or foreign language you’d like to speak, or anything you’re curious about. Don’t let time be the excuse for why you don’t get really, really good at something. Or a bunch of somethings. 

Depending on how much time you invest, in a few years, you too can be Jason Bourne.

P.S. – This blog post on why it’s a good thing to be a jack of all trades.