The Vs. Studio Blog

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

The best athlete
wants his opponent at his best.
The best general
enters the mind of his enemy.
The best businessman
serves the communal good.
The best leader
follows the will of the people. All of them embody
the virtue of non-competition.
Not that they don’t love to compete,
but they do it in the spirit of play.
In this they are like children
and in harmony with the Tao. -“Tao Te Ching” by Lao-Tzu (translated by Stephen Mitchell)

“Art is about the maker. Its aim: to be the expression of who we are. This makes competition absurd. You are creating the work that best represents you. Another artist is making the work that best represents them. The two cannot be measured against one another. Art relates to the artist making it, and the unique contribution they are bringing to the culture…Being made happy by someone else’s best work, and then letting it inspire you to rise to the occasion, is not competition. It’s collaboration…Great art is an invitation, calling to creators everywhere to strive for still higher and deeper levels.” Rick Rubin: The Creative Act: A Way Of Being

“If I ever do anything in my life, I’m going to make that good an album. I was so happy to hear it that I went and started writing ‘God Only Knows.’ ” -Brian Wilson on The Beatles Rubber Soul

“God Only Knows’ is the best song ever written.” -Paul McCartney.

“Without Pet Sounds, Sgt. Pepper never would have happened.” -Beatles producer George Martin

A healthy sense of competition (or really “collaboration” per Rick Rubin in the quote above) should invite, inspire and energize you. It should fill you with joy at what’s possible. Ala The Beach Boys and The Beatles going back and forth on making two of the greatest albums of all time.

An unhealthy sense of competition just leaves you feeling depressed, enervated and at worst, envious.

You’ll know which kind you have by how you feel and if you’re moved to take action.

“All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players”
-from the play As You Like It by William Shakespeare

“Everything’s copy.” -Nora Ephron

“Each of us has a container within. It is constantly being filled with data. It holds the sum total of our thoughts, feelings, dreams, and experiences in the world. Let’s call this the vessel. Information does not enter the vessel directly, like rain filling into a barrel. It is filtered in a unique way for each of us…One can think of the creative act as taking the sum of our vessel’s contents as potential material, selecting for elements that seem useful or significant in the moment, and representing them. This is Source drawn through us and made into books, movies, buildings, paintings, meals, businesses–whatever projects we embark on. If we choose to share what we make, our work can recirculate and become source material for others.” -Rick Rubin, The Creative Act: A Way Of Being

One of the many wonderful things about being an artist is that all of life becomes source material.

Whatever happens to you, good or bad, allow for the source and when you’re ready, use it to make your art. Know that by doing do, you’re helping others and potentially giving them their own source material.

Just like grace, it’s a beautiful and infinite loop.

“I will listen to anyone’s convictions, but pray keep your doubts to yourself.” -Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

If you’re not fully convinced in what you have to offer, then why would you expect anyone else to come to your show, by your product or invest in your business?

You can have your doubts at first (that’s part of being a great artist), but by the time the lights go up, you better have absolute conviction in what you have to say.

Otherwise, please exit the stage and make room for someone else who does.

When mountains crumble to the sea
There will still be you and me -song, “Thank You” by Led Zeppelin

“How long must you wait until you demand the best of yourself.” -Epictetus

“Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.” –The Wizard Of Oz by L. Frank Baum

Institutional validation is a powerful thing.

Until you realize what’s actually behind the curtain.

Go make your art.

“Be regular and orderly in your life, so that you may be violent and original in your work.” – Gustave Flaubert

“We’re interested in (and give our attention to) lots of different kinds of people…funny, serious, contemplative, unlikable, talented, clumsy, innovative, annoying, sensitive, naive, confident, rebellious…The one none of us have time for is boring.” -Gabe Anderson

The legendary Broadway director Arthur Penn was interviewed in the 1990s about the state of the theater. He described going to a very mediocre professional production. Afterward he asks the director why a particular part in the play had been given to a particular actor:

‘He’s a great guy,’ was the response. ‘Prince of a fellow.’ Well, perhaps, but send him home to be a prince to his wife and children; he is a shattering mediocrity. But nice and easy counts for far too much these days. Another director told me—proudly—that he had just completed his third play in which there wasn’t one difficult player; not one distraction; not one argument. Can I add that these were among the most boring plays of our time? … All great work comes to us through various forms of friction … I keep hearing Kim Stanley was difficult. Yes she was: in the best sense of the word. She questioned everything; nailed everything down; got answers; motivated everyone to work at her demonically high standard … Is that difficult? Bring more of them on.

I’m not suggesting that for a production to be successful, it needs to be chock full of strife or tension or conflict. Or that people have to be assholes and egomaniacs. And there’s absolutely no place for toxicity.

But…

If a couple feathers aren’t getting ruffled…If people aren’t having deep discussions and healthy disagreements…If there’s no edge…(All in service of the work of course.)

Beware.

It might be a clue that people aren’t digging deep enough. They’re not risking. Not giving their pound of flesh.

And what you’ll end up with is far worse than a bad production.

It’ll be a boring one.

P.S. – Speaking of the great Kim Stanley, this scene. Watch the behavior. Watch her simmer like a boiling pot before she explodes. So good!

The giant pine tree

grows from a tiny sprout.

The journey of a thousand miles

starts from beneath your feet. –Tao Te Ching by Lao-Tzu, (Translated by Stephen Mitchell)

“Faith is to believe what you do not yet see; the reward for this faith is to see what you believe.” -Saint Augustine

“The work reveals itself as you go.” -Rick Rubin, book The Creative Act: A Way Of Being

Deciding to make your art is a giant leap of faith. You have no idea if it will work out, let alone all the steps you need to get there.

The good news is that you don’t need to know all the steps.

You just need to know (or believe in) one…The next faithful step.

And then take it.

Trust that after you take it, the next faithful step will then reveal itself.

And so on and so on.

Until you’ve reached the end of your creative journey. Looking back, you’ll have no idea how you got there. It was just the culmination of a thousand faithful steps.

Never make a decision based out of fear.

(Bad marketers and less than savory individuals and companies prey on that fear.)

Instead, be confident in your own decision-making capabilities.

When deciding, in the time that is allotted you…deliberate, journal, ideate, ask thoughtful questions, ignore sunk costs, be aware of your own cognitive biases, poll a few close allies…and then go.

Decide.

Trust that you made the best decision possible for all parties involved with whatever information you had.

Also, trust that if circumstances change or you get new information, you’ll make a new, best decision possible.

P.S. – To help with fear, check out this fear setting exercise from Tim Ferriss

Look, and it can’t be seen.
Listen, and it can’t be heard.
Reach, and it can’t be grasped. –Tao Te Ching by Lao-Tzu (translation by Stephen Mitchell)

“What could I say to you that would be of value, except that perhaps you seek too much, that as a result of your seeking you cannot find.” ― Hermann Hesse, Siddhartha

“The contemplative way of life is so called because it’s the way of life devoted to the cultivation of contemplative experience. That’s our starting place. To contemplate means to observe carefully, to pay close attention. Most of the things that we notice, we notice in passing, on our way to something else; then, every so often, something gives us reason to pause. Something catches our eye or draws our attention, and we’re drawn for a moment to ponder or to reflect on that which awakened us in this way.” -James Finley, “Turning To The Mystics” podcast

“I was found by those who did not seek me; I revealed myself to those who did not ask for me.” -Romans 10:20

“Life is like a finger pointing away to the moon. Don’t concentrate on the finger or you will miss all that heavenly glory.” -Bruce Lee, Striking Thoughts: Bruce Lee’s Wisdom for Daily Living

If you spend all your time seeking, you’ll never have any time finding (another word for finding might be enjoying).

And perhaps all that you seek, you already have. You just don’t realize it because you’re too busy seeking.

“Once we leave out the “and” (as in, I want to do this and be well paid, invited, approved of and always successful) then it’s way easier to do what we said we wanted to do.” -Seth Godin

“How do I create more value?” is a much more useful question than, “how do I find a better job?” -Seth Godin

“Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters.” -Colossians 3:23

“Put your heart, mind, and soul into even your smallest acts. This is the secret of success.” -Swami Sivananda

Labor Day was first proposed by Matthew Maguire, a labor union secretary in 1882 in New York as a “tribute to the contributions workers have made to the strength, prosperity, and well-being of our country.”

Make sure you take time out today for a much needed and well-deserved rest.

Also, remember and be thankful to all those who’ve been on strike in the past or present for better working conditions. We owe them a huge debt of gratitude.

Finally, if you’re unhappy at your current job, if you’re struggling to find meaningful work, before leaving, ask yourself if instead you can bring more meaning to the work you already have.

If the answer is no, great, time to move on.

If the answer is yes, give that a shot first. Inject value and purpose into all you do. See what happens, how you feel. You might be surprised to find out that the meaningful work was always right there, all along, hiding in plain sight.

“If an opinion contrary to your own makes you angry, that is a sign that you are subconsciously aware of having no good reason for thinking as you do. If some one maintains that two and two are five, or that Iceland is on the equator, you feel pity rather than anger, unless you know so little of arithmetic or geography that his opinion shakes your own contrary conviction. The most savage controversies are those about matters as to which there is no good evidence either way. Persecution is used in theology, not in arithmetic, because in arithmetic there is knowledge, but in theology there is only opinion. So whenever you find yourself getting angry about a difference of opinion, be on your guard; you will probably find, on examination, that your belief is going beyond what the evidence warrants.” – Bertrand Russell

“We have the power to hold no opinion about a thing and to not let it upset our state of mind–for things have no natural power to shape our judgment.” – Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

While the world and social media beckons us to have an opinion on every single topic and to publicly state said opinion as much as possible and on as many platforms as possible, realize you do have a choice.

You can choose to not have an opinion.

And if you have an opinion, you can choose to keep it to yourself.

It doesn’t mean you don’t care. You care deeply about the world and humanity. But having a fully-formed, nuanced opinion and then sharing it should take a lot of time and energy. You need to observe, read, think, write, converse, engage, explore and reflect.

It’s okay to sit this one out.

There are only so many causes and topics that you can put your shoulder behind.

A good hitter doesn’t swing at every pitch.

Light that’s focused is way more powerful than light that’s dispersed.