1.Ignore everybody.
The more original your idea is, the less good advice other people will
be able to give you.
When I first started with the cartoon-on back-of-bizcard format, people
thought Iwas nuts. Why wasnʼt I trying to do something more easy for
markets to digest, i.e.,cutie-pie greeting cards or whatever?
You donʼt know if your idea is any good the moment itʼs created. Neither
does anyone else.The most you can hope for is a strong gut feeling that
it is. And trusting your feelings is not as easy as the optimists say
it is. Thereʼs a reason why feelings scare us. And asking close friends
never works quite as well as you hope, either. Itʼs not that they
deliberately want to be unhelpful. Itʼs just they donʼt know your world
one millionth as well as you know your world, no matter how hard they
try, no matter how hard you try to explain.
Plus, a big idea will change you. Your friends may love you, but they
donʼt want you to change. If you change, then their dynamic with you
also changes. They like things the way they are, thatʼs how they love
you—the way you are, not the way you may become.

2.The idea doesn’t have to be big. It just has to change the world.
The two are not the same thing.We all spend a lot of time being
impressed
by folks weʼve never met.Somebody featured in the media whoʼs got a big
company, a big product, a bigmovie, a big bestseller. Whatever. And we
spend even more time trying unsuccessfully to keep up with them. Trying
to start up our own companies, our own products, our own film projects,
books and whatnot.
Iʼm as guilty as anyone. I tried lots of different things over the
years, trying desperately to pry
my career out of the jaws of mediocrity. Some to do with business, some
to do with art, etc. One evening, after one false start too many, I just
gave up. Sitting at a bar, feeling a bit burned out by work and life in
general, I just started drawing on the back of business cards for no
reason. I didnʼt really need a reason. I just did it because it was
there, because it amused me in a kind of random, arbitrary way.
Of course it was stupid. Of course it wasnʼt commercial. Of course it
wasnʼt going to go anywhere. Of course it was a complete and utter waste
of time. But in retrospect, it was this built-in futility that gave it
its edge. Because it was the exact opposite of all the “Big Plans”

The
sovereignty you have over your work will inspire far more people than
the actual content ever will.

3.Put the hours in.
Doing anything worthwhile takes forever.90% of what separates successful
people and failed people is time, effort, and stamina. I get asked a
lot, “Your business card format is very simple. Arenʼt you worried about
somebody ripping it off?”
Standard Answer: Only if they can draw more of them than me, better than
me.
What gives the work its edge is the simple fact that Iʼve spent years
drawing them. Iʼve drawn thousands. Tens of thousands of man-hours.
So if somebody wants to rip my idea off, go ahead. If somebody wants to
overtake me in the business card doodle wars, go ahead. Youʼve got many
long years in front of you. And unlike me, you wonʼt be doing it for the
joy of it. Youʼll be doing it for some self-loathing, ill-informed,
lame-ass mercenary reason. So the years will be even longer and far, far
more painful. Lucky you.
If somebody in your industry is more successful than you, itʼs probably
because he works harder at it than you do. Sure, maybe heʼs more
inherently talented, more adept at networking, etc., but I donʼt
consider that an excuse. Over time, that advantage counts for less and
less. Which is why the world is full of highly talented, network-savvy,
failed mediocrities.
Put the hours in; do it for long enough and magical, life-transforming things happen eventually.

The point is, an hour or two on the train is very manageable for me. The
fact I have a job means I donʼt feel pressured to do something
market-friendly. Instead, I get to do whatever the hell I want. I get to
do it for my own satisfaction. And I think that makes the work more
powerful in the long run. It also makes it easier to carry on with it in
a calm fashion, day-in day-out, and not go crazy in insane, creative
bursts brought on by money worries.
The day job, which I really like, gives me something productive and
interesting to do among fellow adults. It gets me out of the house in
the daytime. If I were a professional cartoonist,Iʼd just be chained to a
drawing table at home all day, scribbling out a living in silence,
interrupted only by frequent trips to the coffee shop. No, thank you.
Simply put, my method allows me to pace myself over the long haul, which
is important.Stamina is utterly important. And stamina is only possible
if itʼs managed well. People think all they need to do is endure one
crazy, intense, job-free creative burst and their dreams will come true.
They are wrong, they are stupidly wrong.

4.If your biz plan depends on you
suddenly being “discovered” by some big shot, your plan will
probably fail.
Nobody suddenly discovers anything.Things are made slowly and in pain.I
was offered a quite substantial publishing deal a year or two ago.
Turned it down. The company sent me a contract. I looked it over.

5.You are responsible for your own experience.
Nobody can tell you if what youʼre doing is good, meaningful or
worthwhile. The more
compelling the path, the lonelier it is. Every creative person is
looking for “The Big Idea.” You know, the one that is going tocatapult
them out from the murky depths of obscurity and on to the highest planes
of incandescent lucidity.
The one thatʼs all love-at-first-sight with the Zeitgeist. The one
thatʼs going to get them invited to all the right parties, metaphorical
or otherwise.So naturally you ask yourself, if and when you finally come
up with The Big Idea, after years of toil, struggle and doubt, how do
you know whether or not it is “The One?”
Answer: You donʼt.
Thereʼs no glorious swelling of existential triumph. Thatʼs not what
happens. All you get is this rather kvetchy voice inside you that seems
to say, “This is totally stupid. This is utterly moronic. This is a
complete waste of time. Iʼm going to do it anyway.”And you go do it
anyway.Second-rate ideas like glorious swellings far more. Keeps them
alive longer.

6.Everyone is born creative;everyone
is given a box of crayons in kindergarten.
Then when you hit puberty they take the crayons away and replace them
with books
on algebra etc. Being suddenly hit years later with the creative bug is
just a wee voice telling you, “Iʼd like my crayons back, please.” So
youʼve got the itch to do something. Write a screenplay, start a
painting, write a book, turn your recipe for fudge brownies into a
proper business, whatever. You donʼt know where the itch came from; itʼs
almost like it just arrived on your doorstep, uninvited. Until now you
were quite happy holding down a real job, being a regular person...Until
now.
You donʼt know if youʼre any good or not, but youʼd think you could be.
And the idea terrifies you. The problem is, even if you are good, you
know nothing about this kind of business.
You donʼt know any publishers or agents or all these fancy-shmancy kind
of folk. You have a friend whoʼs got a cousin in California whoʼs into
this kind of stuff, but you havenʼt talked to your friend for over two
years...
Besides, if you write a book, what if you canʼt find a publisher? If you
write a screenplay, what
if you canʼt find a producer? And what if the producer turns out to be a
crook? Youʼve always
worked hard your whole life; youʼll be damned if youʼll put all that
effort into something if there ainʼt no pot of gold at the end of this
dumb-ass rainbow...

They’re only crayons.
You didn’t fear them in kindergarten, why fear them now?

Your wee voice doesnʼt want you to sell something. Your wee voice wants
you to make something. Thereʼs a big difference. Your wee voice doesnʼt
give a damn about publishers or Hollywood producers.
Go ahead and make something. Make something really special. Make
something amazing that
will really blow the mind of anybody who sees it.
If you try to make something just to fit your uninformed view of some
hypothetical market, you will fail. If you make something special and
powerful and honest and true, you will succeed.
The wee voice didnʼt show up because it decided you need more money or
you need to hang out with movie stars. Your wee voice came back because
your soul somehow depends on it.Thereʼs something you havenʼt said,
something you havenʼt done, some light that needs to be switched on, and
it needs to be taken care of. Now.
So you have to listen to the wee voice or it will die…taking a big chunk
of you along with it.
The creative person basically has two kinds of jobs.One is the sexy, creative
kind. Second is the
kind that pays the bills.