Real Artists Don't Starve: Timeless Strategies for Thriving in the New Creative Age

the further your work will spread. Of course, you have to be good, but being good is not enough. Skill gets you in front of the right people, but network magnifies your reach. Creative success, then, is contingent on your ability to connect well with those who can vouch for your work. It doesn’t take a lot of people—just a few friends, as Hank said

Break is a myth.

This is the Rule of the Scene, which says that places and people shape the success of our work far more than we realize. Location is not irrelevant. Place matters.

without a patron, without someone to vouch for the genius, most creative work will not spread very far. Creative work is a team effort—a duo of artist and patron, singer and producer, actor and manager. One is the talent and the other the advocate.

Success in any creative field is contingent on the scenes and networks you are a part of. You join the scene, showing up and sharing your work. But you build a network by giving more than you take. A network is not made by just connecting with the right people, but by connecting

The marks of a good apprentice are patience, perseverance, and humility.

Without a network, creative work does not succeed. Exposure to the right networks can accelerate your success like few things can. This flies in the face of what we typically expect an artist to do or say. “All my great opportunities have come from friends,” Hank said. Great work does not come about through a single stroke of genius, but by the con

There is a secret every professional artist knows that the amateurs don’t: being original is overrated. The most creative minds in the world are not especially creative; they’re just better at rearrangement. In order to do that, they have to be familiar with their influences. They have to study before they steal. Yes, before you become an artist, y

Without a patron, you’re rolling the dice, hoping for the best— and the world is unkind to such gambles.