Desire, Determination and Faith

If the opposite of what you tell me about you, your art and your creative business cannot be true, you have just told me nothing and wasted my time.  My design business prides itself on incredible creativity, service and attention to detail.  Seriously?  What design business does not pride itself on creativity, service and attention to detail?  So telling your clients that you do what every other design business has to do tells me exactly zero about what your design business does that is iconic to it and it alone.

Just like I noted in my last post, you have to stake your claim, tell your story that matters and then live to its truth.  Sounds simple enough.  As if.

Water goes wherever it is able to go.  Ask anyone with a leak.  So too your clients, employees, colleagues, even peers.  Your job is to make sure there are no leaks.  Why?  Because the journey is yours to share, not the other way around.  Yes, you can learn from anyone and everything along the way.  However, the path is yours and yours alone.

The real challenge here is when you move towards the very essence of what you do.  What happens when you own your process as yours and yours alone?  You will meet resistance.  Fact.  It will come from within – your employees, partners and, most importantly, your own head.  Your clients will think you unreasonable and inflexible.  Everyone will ask you why it has to be this way.  The only answer that matters is because this is the best way you know how to do your best.  It will not satisfy those that want more behind the answer (proof that it will work, reference to others that work this way).  Who cares?  It is your journey to share, not the other way around.

Your desire to create, your determination to create on your terms and your faith that your desire and determination will manifest in incredible work is the essence of your creative business.  When you remove all of your excuses, trap doors and potential fall guys, you are left naked with nothing but desire, determination and faith.  There is no more terrifying and necessary place to be.

Confront the fear you must though.  Eventually, you will come to learn that beautiful work without a better process is uniquely debilitating and ultimately soul sucking.  Place an image of your work in front of a potential client done for a disaster of a client next to work done for a dream client.  My guess: the potential client cannot tell the difference.  Maybe you can convince yourself that you can absorb the pain in the name of the work.  I pray not.

We all need to be seen for who we actually are.  As artists and creative business owners, you have to be seen as the guides you are, not merely the help.  For this to happen, you must be responsible for the power of the journey, your journey.  Water going where we tell it to go is among the most powerful forces humanity has been able to harness.  Your creative business is no different if only you have the desire, determination and faith to make it so.