The Successful Creative

All creatives are cursed.

And it isn't the sexy kind of cursed like where you turn into a werewolf or something - I think we can all agree that'd be pretty awesome. No, it's the subtle kind of curse. It's the kind you might not notice until you're 46 years old at a desk job wondering why you let the best years of your life slip away. It's the kind that keeps you paralyzed at 18 when you know you have something special to offer the world but everyone says you are too young.

This book is not about overcoming that curse.

It's not about outgrowing the curse.

It's about learning to live with it.

What if loneliness is not something to be defeated, but an incredible source of power and inspiration? What if that vision you have that nobody else can see is the very thing which will set you apart from the rest of the world? What if what makes you weird also makes you unique?

The creative's curse is real, it's here to stay, and it shows up in all three phases of the creative journey:

Discovery: When the voices in your head are telling you nothing you create will ever be good enough.

Discipline: When you start to taste success, but freeze with the challenge of replicating that success.

Destiny: When you feel you've reached your artistic potential, and now have to figure out what on earth to do with your life.

Because the creative is afraid of success and failure and obscurity and fame all at the same time. He is beautiful and bold and timid and courageous. He is unique to the core, so will never be understood by anyone.

This is the creative's curse.