Foundations

I have a daughter in fifth grade and a son in third.  They do much of their work on IPads now.  If they have to go old school and use actual pencil and paper, often times they just take a picture of their work and turn it in digitally.  And yet they still have to figure out how to do their spelling and math at the fundamental level, even though the machines pretty much will do it automatically.  I, for one, am thankful that our educational system has not gone so far as to forsake fundamentals in the hopes of pushing students farther faster.

I hear all the time from creative professionals that they need not bother learning the foundation when the machines will do it for them.  Whether it is with respect to your art or your business, your goal has to be to break the rules, or at least bend them to your will.  However, you cannot break the rules until you know the rules and why they were created in the first place.

As much as we would all like to believe there is a silver bullet, a panacea for what troubles we might be facing – terrible client, too few clients, bad employees, low bank account, etc. – there is not. NOONE has the answer except you.  However, that answer has to come from education — a willingness to grasp fundamentals to the best of your ability even if it is not your game.  Hey, I cannot sing a note but I work with many musicians on their businesses.  I have to be able to appreciate what goes into the work they do even if I will never be able to read music.  Same with your business.  You do not have to be an accountant but you have to be able to know your numbers and what they mean.  Concepts like seasonality, margin, profit and loss cannot be Greek to you.

Think of it this way:  you ask your clients to relate to your world so you can do what you do.  You are in the role of educator and teach your clients what their vision actually can be.  You expect your clients to be able to make good decisions and you have to own the role of providing the information necessary for those decision to happen.  When the shoe is on the other foot, own the expectations others have of you so you too can make good decisions.  Or you can blindly trust those who say they have the answer.  Good luck with that.

Nuance is everything.  Subtle cues you, your art and your creative business share with the world to say, “This is who we are and why we stand alone” is the distinctive element to your success.  When I ask you why you price the way you do, can you defend it in terms of value delivery?  When I ask you why I cannot change my mind once the design is set, can you tell me why? How well do you embody your four transitions?  Your four P’s?

When issues arise, do you try to address the symptom or the disease?  Is the client, employee or colleague really a jerk or did you help make them that way?  How can you tell the difference?  Are you willing to look at your process to find out?

We should be learning all the time.  Foundations do shift and we have to adjust along the way.  The world is, in fact, round and older than five thousand years.  We have to be willing to live where we are though to the best of our ability.  That means do the work to understand where you are and where you need to go.  Listen to learn, not to be saved.  Evolve as you learn with the hope of moving closer to who you, your art and creative business actually are, not to what the world asks you to be.  The whole point is to move from an ever stronger foundation based on experience, knowledge, and integrity.  Or you can let the machines do it for you.  Your choice.