The Practice: Shipping Creative Work

And I feel like an imposter often. That’s because my best work involves doing things I’ve never done before.

The practice is not the means to the output, the practice is the output, because the practice is all we can control.

Creativity is an act of leadership. Leaders are imposters.

In fact, there were two key differences between great competitors and good ones: Skill. The best swimmers swim differently than the ones who don’t perform as well. They do their strokes differently; they do their turns differently. These are learned and practiced skills. Attitude. The best swimmers bring a different attitude to their training. They

Isn’t that what we’re here to do? To do work we’re proud of. To put ourselves on the hook. To find the contribution we’re capable of. The only way to be on this journey is to begin. But there isn’t a guarantee. In fact, most of what we seek to do will not work. But our intent—the intent of being of service, of making things better, of building some

Our passion is simply the work we’ve trusted ourselves to do.

The fifth hammer is the one that’s not proven, not obvious, or not always encouraged. The fifth hammer is you, when you choose the practice and trust yourself enough to create.

“It’s not for you” is the unspoken possible companion to “Here, I made this.”

“You have two options,” she told Rolling Stone, “You can stay the same and protect the formula that gave you your initial success. They’re going to crucify you for staying the same. If you change, they’re going to crucify you for changing. But staying the same is boring. And change is interesting. So of the two options,” she concluded cheerfully, “