If you want to be a person who people respect, you have to stand for something.
This was a person with an enormous list and a very successful business.
The emails were very compelling, dont misunderstand.
*dpc_photography_*
They were in fact brilliantly written.
I just could not figure outwhatthis person was actually selling.
Skilled copywriting and marketing was covering up an undeniable fact: There was basically nothing there.
Because a book is aboutsomething.
In the short term, this had worked well for him.
In truth that was never going to happen.
*dpc_photography_*
It was one of those situations that Gertrude Steinfamously said, one wherethere is no there there.
One that you could only cover for with marketing or being ahead of the curve technologically for so long.
Much of the work thats created online falls into this category.
Its not thatLele PonsorAmanda CernyorLogan Paularent funny.
Its that there is genuinely nothing there.
This is not a criticism of the entire medium or generation, of course.
The same goes forCasey Neistatsvideos.
This critique is not limited to art, its true for people too.
The person who says their passion is social entrepreneurship but builds nothing and cares about no one.
There is nothing actually there.
And they wonder why they never accomplish anything.
Without athere, what is there?
And yet this is the strategy that most people allow to guide their work and their lives.
How old was he when he figured that out?49!
Its essential that we cultivate this ability to stop and look objectively at our own work.
One must step back from it and say: Am I really doing good work here?
What do I stand for?
Am Iactually moving towards mastery?Is there any substance to what I am doing?
I know this is not easy to do.
Ive resisted it too.
Of course, I was flattered and excited.
Youre not ready, he said.
He was right.There was not much there there,for me yet.
When I looked at the material, I saw that I only had enough for a few chapters.
Now I could have paid to have someone help me work around that weakness.
Or I could have, withmy marketing abilitiesand platform, found a way to gloss over it.
I am fortunate that I didnt do thisthatsomeone told me Fuck your dreams politely enoughthat I sobered up.
That only happens when there is something actuallythere.
Peopleoften think that ego is helpfulbecause it makes people ambitious.
It makes them confident that they can succeed where so many others have failed.
This might be true, butmore often its toxicfor precisely the reasons that I have outlined above.
To make work that actually sellsthat isperennial and important and meaningfulrequires humility and dedication.
It requires the objectivity and awareness that is made impossible with ego.
Ego wants big numbers, not hard work.
It wants to be everything for everyone, and often ends up being nothing for nobody.
The client above thought I could slap together a bookbut I couldnt.
It would require abandoning the crutches of medium.
They didnt, and thats fine.
If you want to be a person who people respect, you have to stand for something.
Not everyone will like it, but if its sincere, they will respect it.
You have to find yourthere.
Because without it, what are you?
