“Don’t aim for success if you want it; just do what you love and believe in, and it will come naturally.”
David Frost
The secret to creative success is simple: there is no secret.
Success in any creative endeavor is more about cooking a great meal than it is about magic.
Magicians set up a trick, then – POOF – the result is done and in front of us. It’s secretive and usually deceptive. Magic, once uncovered, loses its mystery.
Chef’s take their time. They seek the best ingredients. They look for the right mixtures and blends. They understand a great meal is built around more than just one thing. It takes a commitment, a lot of small tasks, a lot of small additions, a few subtractions, the right temperature, and a lot of intentionality to cook a great meal.
The same is true with our best ideas – they require commitment. We have to know where we are going and what we are cooking. We have to find the best ingredients. The best temperature. Be willing to add and subtract things we love in order to create the perfect blend. Then, we have to execute it with precision, intentionality, and make our best ideas delicious.
Success is not built around one thing. It takes prayer, hard work, passion, hustle, talent, effort, calling, and a lot of intentionality.
What are some of the most important ingredients you have found for your success?
I’ve found I need a lot of humility, hard work, courage and community to be successful at my ministry and my business.
The right canvas, whether it’s working in my home office or at a coffee shop, or sometimes I need to abandon the digital art for the sake of getting behind the camera to find the right image or get the right juices flowing.
I LOVE THAT! Creating gets the juices going for sure.
It also takes a lot of burned meals (baked in picture styles?) to have a successful bakery. The little mistakes add up to continued polishing of the artform. Even though it isn’t directly stated, I think we translate “success” as “money,” but I’ve always been of the opinion that “success” will naturally flow from the resulting work of a diligent, determined creative. Therefore, as you are saying, I agree wholeheartedly that determined creativity will render success, but determined success will not render creativity.
I love this. I find that in church settings, we can take the magic approach under the guise of “the spirit”. Instead of taking the time to wisely and intentionally add and subtract the right ingredients for a great meal we throw something together with whats in the fridge, nuke it, and with fingers crossed pray the “spirit” will show up and make up for our weak sauce cooking skills.
The scary thing is…out of love for His people God often will move and change people. This can’t be mistaken as validation of poor prep.
For me, it’s “stay focused on vision”. So many times I get caught up in the creative endevour that I leave behind the vision of the project or church. That always misses the mark. I emphasize focus too because the more focused I am on a project, the better it turns out. It’s so easy to lose focus in creativity because all of us creatives udder a little from A.D.D.
Stay FOCUSED on VISION.