Success and Hard Work

Happily, I am hearing that the outlook for creative businesses in 2014 is very good.  For some, too good, so much work that the creative business cannot handle it all.  Running parallel to the success is our culture’s validation of overwork.  We presume that the ultimate rewards go to those willing to work longer and harder than anyone else.  Call me what you will, but both notions – taking on all that comes your way and overworking are fools play.  Instead of being a measure of a success and the arbiter of a brighter future, they are, as Malcolm Gladwell put so well in his latest book, Underdogs, Misfits and The Art of Battling Giants, evidence that you are about to go over the crest of the inverted u-curve.  When you are at the crest of the u-curve as so many of you are getting to be, the value of no far outweighs the yes regardless how tantalizing the offer.

First, a thought about the difference between creative businesses and traditional businesses.  When a product driven business gets busy, it can scale.  Max out what a factory can produce and then build a new factory.  In today’s world, there are more ways than ever to smooth supply side problems.  Everything from full outsourcing to international temporary labor solutions and the like.  Creative businesses on the other hand, create for a living.  Scale happens slowly if at all and often leads to a crisis of the overall mission of the business.  Sure, you can produce 150 events a year but that is not the same business as one that does 50.  The reason is the intimacy of the work, the intensity of the process and the need to maintain subjective value.  Creativity matters first and most.  You just cannot throw bodies at the problem to solve it.  When a creative business reaches its max, the entire business suffers and ALL clients get less than the best.  Not the same as when a factory maxes out – for the most part, this just means there will be less of the product available.

If you have an understanding of what you, your art and creative business can handle, then let that be enough.  If ten projects is your number, then the price of doing eleven has to be enough to ensure that the ten that came before do not suffer at all.  At a certain point, though, there is no price that can be paid to make that a reality.  And, if you are there, ask yourself if you really want to throw those that honored you, your art and your creative business the most by coming in early, respecting how you do things, etc. under the proverbial bus.

Which leads me to the oxymoronic notion that overwork is to be rewarded.  When you suffer from that delusion, you might believe that there is no limit to what can be taken on and you go over the crest of the u-curve.  Ahem, sleep deprivation is a universal method of torture.  Prolonged sleep deprivation impairs judgment and motor skills.  Yes, there are times we all have to work hard to get the job done.  But we also require rest and downtime to recover.  If you are so busy that you are always stepping on the gas and demanding everyone around you do the same, you are going to lose.  Period.

Think about the why of your creative business.  You are paid to move people, to stir them with your art and all that is behind it.  If you and your staff are unable to be truly present, to value what is before them and the responsibility in their hands, your clients will find someone who will.  Win the battle, sink your ship.

You might wear the fact that you and your staff have been up for days on end as a badge of honor.  Unless you have been unbelievably well paid to do just that (i.e., incredibly tight time frame and pressure), it is more a message that you do not have your proverbial sh-t together than your ability to perform.  Who cares if you pull it off in the end?

Your clients pay for your best.  They deserve just that, nothing less.  For all creative businesses, there is a limit to how far you can go and still do your best.  Ignore those who tell you to just suck it up, work harder.  You will get more and better great work by doing great work, not by doing more work for the sake of the work.  Creativity begets creativity.  Let the rest go.