Bambino (replay)

Todd Henry [00:00:00]:
You. Once upon a time, in a remote village, there was a young archer who worked tirelessly to master his craft. From a young age, he practiced rigorously to become so skilled, so accurate, that he eventually surpassed even his master. Unsatisfied to stop there, he decided to leave his small village in search of a new master. One who could hone and perfect his abilities. From town to town, he roamed. Yet he was met with dis appointment after disappointment. After years of searching, he nearly surrendered.

Todd Henry [00:00:29]:
Until one day, when roaming the forest, he noticed an arrow lodged into the center of a target affixed to a tree trunk. It was a perfect bullseye. Impressive. Journeying on, he found another. And another and another until there were too many to count. In every direction, he was surrounded by perfectly placed arrow after perfectly placed arrow. Finally, he had found the master he had been searching for all these many years. He sprinted as fast as he could to the nearest village and begged every passerby, please, I must reach this master.

Todd Henry [00:01:05]:
One greater than I. Upon kneeling at his newfound master's feet, he made his request. Good sir, your skills are unmatched. Please reveal to me the secret of your technique. The master replied. Well, it's quite simple, my son. I first fire the arrow, and then I paint the bullseye around it. When it comes to ideas, it seems like some people just know how to hit the center of the target time and time again.

Todd Henry [00:01:34]:
They consistently strike brilliance. How do they do it? Are they cheating, or are they just really that good? And how can mere mortals like us become masters of our craft, too? On today's show, we learn the secret to coming up with more ideas and better ideas, not just for now, but for years to come. This is daily creative. My name is Todd Henry. Welcome to the show. The sun is shining. The smells of hot dogs, peanuts, and America's favorite pastime are in the air. It's the bottom of the 9th, and the home team is trailing by one.

Todd Henry [00:02:18]:
With two outs and a runner. At first, the batter steps up to the plate. But not just any batter. A record setter. Unfortunately, it's just not the record you're hoping for. This particular batter holds the record for the most strikeouts in a single season. At the moment, you need the best. You're stuck with the worst.

Todd Henry [00:02:42]:
Strike one. Strike two. Strike. It's a high fly ball to center field.

Todd Henry [00:03:00]:
As the game winning runner rounds third and heads for home, the crowd basks in the glory and the euphoria of the miracle they just witnessed. Only it wasn't necessarily as miraculous as you might think. In fact, a lot of fans expected nothing less from this particular batter because even though he's the worst he just so happens to also be the greatest of all time. In 1923, Babe Ruth broke the record for the most home runs in a single season, 60. By the end of his career, he would amass 714 total home runs. They don't call him the Sultan of Swat, the great Bambino, for nothing. But in that same season, he won the home run title. He broke another record.

Todd Henry [00:03:42]:
In 1923, Babe Ruth struck out more times than any other player in major League baseball. In fact, by the time he retired in 1935 he held the all time strikeout record with 1330 a record that would stand for nearly 30 years until it was broken by Mickey Mantle in 1964. The greatest home run hitter of the entire first half of the 20th century struck out nearly twice as much as he sent it over the fence. Do the math. At three pitches per strikeout, that's nearly 4000 swings. That came to nothing. And that's not just counting all the at bats where he got a strike but didn't strike out. Likely thousands more.

Todd Henry [00:04:25]:
Baseball is a funny sport. It literally takes thousands upon thousands of swings just to get a few hundred home runs. And if a player has a batting average of about 300, they're going to the hall of Fame. Two thirds of the time you step up to the plate, you don't even get a hit and you're considered one of the best to ever play well. The truth is, creative work is a funny sport too. It's tempting to look at all of the home runs of other players in the league and forget about all the strikes it took just to land one arrow on the bullseye to mix metaphors. If you want to do brilliant work, there's no way around it. You have to take a lot of swings.

Todd Henry [00:05:06]:
The question is, what's stopping you?

Becky Blades [00:05:10]:
Overthinking. If we can get as quickly as we can from imagination to action we get farther with the idea. All of those things we do to talk ourselves out of ideas don't have time to take hold.

Todd Henry [00:05:23]:
That's Becky Blades. She's the author of start more than you can finish. A creative permission slip to unleash your best ideas.

Becky Blades [00:05:30]:
I am good at starting things, I lamented, and had a lot of shame about all the things I didn't finish. Perhaps because I ran a creative business. I had a marketing firm for many years and I had learned to put value monetizing and putting value on creative time. So whatever didn't get used seemed like a waste.

Todd Henry [00:05:51]:
If you listen to last week's episode, this is a theme that comes up over and over again in creative work over optimization. One of the negative side effects of quote billing time is that any time that isn't directly billable looks like a waste. By the way, I'm not naive sometimes that's exactly what it is. But that system has a way of conditioning us to fixate on avoiding waste instead of pursuing brilliance, avoiding strikes instead of swinging for the fences. The net result being that we think long and hard, often too long and hard, about whether or not we should start something. Will it be worth it? Is it a good idea? What if it's not? How can I justify the investment? Why should I choose to work on this idea over that idea? But one of the biggest, most problematic questions we use to justify not taking action is this why would I start something if I'm not absolutely certain I could or even should finish it? This is such a dangerous question. If for no other reason, then it's one of the questions that sounds strategic. The fact is, so many of us sacrifice our best ideas on the altar of responsibility.

Todd Henry [00:07:02]:
We hear the voices. There they go again. Why can't they be more disciplined? When are they going to grow up and finish what they started?

Becky Blades [00:07:10]:
I went through an introspective time. I actually counted my unfinished work. I did a self analysis, and then I came to understand that my ability to act on my ideas is really an amazing strength. I studied old masters, I studied old composers, and really, one example would be Mozart, who didn't have a better hit rate than any of his contemporaries. He just started more music.

Todd Henry [00:07:40]:
So the archer in the woods had more bullseyes because he shot more arrows. Babe Ruth had more home runs because he took more swings as a result. Did he have a lot of strikeouts? Sure, a record breaking amount. But he didn't hit more home runs in spite of his strikeouts. He hit more home runs because of them. Talented people need to take more swings.

Becky Blades [00:08:01]:
I've finished a lot of things, but it really occurred to me that in both our creative work and life, saying focus on the finish and finish as planned and don't take on more than you can finish does not make us finish more. It just makes us start less.

Todd Henry [00:08:18]:
What if you took this seriously? I mean, what if you stopped putting all the value on the finish and instead saw the start for what it really is? What if you have permission to start as many things as you want? Guilt free, no judgment?

Becky Blades [00:08:33]:
One system I recommend is to start starting something every day, to try to get a feel for how easily some ideas come out of you and how you recognize that an idea doesn't have legs and kind of use a system that's easy for you. I have a wild idea system. I'll write the big, audacious, wildest idea and what problems it's solving, and then go into what would that mean for me? How much joy and passion does that give me? And usually in about 30 minutes, I can realize that, oh, this sounds fun to talk about, but at this stage in life, I'm probably not going to do this. But here's the fun thing. We're really talking about honoring our ideas. As I think you wrote in one of your books, we are not always meant to finish every idea we come up with. Some ideas are meant for the universe. We can hand them off.

Becky Blades [00:09:25]:
Also, you think about the fact that some of the biggest ideas in history were never finished in a person's lifetime. The cathedrals, the research was not finished by one person in one lifetime. So sometimes just starting is the joy, is the exploration. We don't have to get all our gratification from the trophy and the finish.

Todd Henry [00:09:48]:
You can hear my full interview with Becky Blades, where she explains her process for starting more than you can finish in the daily creative app at dailycreative app. So let's say you're someone who's willing to throw caution to the wind and start more. Finish or not, is that all it takes to punch your ticket to brilliance, notoriety and industry accolades? Well, probably not. On a chilly morning, December 1719, three near the dunes of Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, two brothers changed the course of human history. Orville and Wilbur Wright were self taught inventors and visionaries who refused to believe that if God wanted humans to fly, he would have given them wings. For years, they poured over the work of their predecessors and tinkered in their bicycle shop, where they'd been quietly engineering the impossible. As the right flyer, a fragile fabrication of wooden cloth, sat on the dunes, poised for takeoff. Orville sat poised to man the world's first successful flight of a heavier than air aircraft.

Todd Henry [00:10:53]:
The first flight lasted 12 seconds and covered 120ft. Later that day, Wilbur took his turn. Back and forth they went, making four flights in total, the longest lasting 59 seconds and covering 852ft. It was the start of something big. Orville and Wilbur had grit, determination, vision, courage and perseverance. But you know what? They didn't have a pilot's license.

Austin Kleon [00:11:21]:
Write the book you need to read right now. Like, whatever book you need, or like, whatever book you need to write, write it right now. Don't think, oh, I'll get a few years under my belt, and then I'll sit down and write it. It's like, whatever's calling to you, just write it right now.

Todd Henry [00:11:35]:
That's Austin Kleon, author of steal like an artist and a leading voice on thriving as a creative pro.

Austin Kleon [00:11:42]:
I was about to write a book right before the pandemic hit, and then I was like, oh, I can't do it now. The pandemic, oh, my kids are home. And if I had just sat down and wrote the book that I need to read right then it'd be here and I'd have done my future self a favor and all my readers a favor, too. So it's like that thing. I feel like I'm grateful to that dude back then for putting down steel like an artist and being unafraid. Being unafraid because now I'm very afraid. Like, I have a lot to lose now. There's just something really powerful about that.

Todd Henry [00:12:15]:
If there's one thing we're all good at, it's coming up with sensible reasons why we shouldn't do something. No matter how determined you are to start starting more today, don't be surprised at how easy it is to convince yourself to punt to tomorrow. My advice to you, start more and act now. And as you do, you'll discover that there are plenty of things you started that you're not going to finish. Congratulations. Because you'll also find many more things that are worth persevering for, especially if you embrace what I've personally found to be the key to pursuing brilliance, creating in parallel. It's an inevitable consequence. The more you start, the more you'll have going, even if you choose not to finish most of it.

Todd Henry [00:12:57]:
For a lot of us, that's unsettling because it feels like we're dividing our attention and undermining our productivity. You chase two hairs and you catch neither. And it's not that you can't create sequentially like that.

Austin Kleon [00:13:10]:
I call that chain smoking. There's like an ember of the last thing that used to light up the next one and that you can sail through ten years doing that. That's like how Joni Mitchell says she works. She says, whatever I didn't cover, whatever weird thing popped up in the last album that didn't feel finished or addressed, that's what I use to light up the next one.

Todd Henry [00:13:32]:
So again, it's not that you can't create sequentially chain smoking style, as Austin calls it, but also give yourself permission to create in parallel. This concept came up in my conversation with Andy J. Pizza, illustrator and host of the creative pep talk podcast, as well as a New York Times bestselling author.

Andy J. Pizza [00:13:50]:
I was asking him about how do you know what book to write? And I loved your answer of like, well, you don't have to just write one at a time. And I think that gets at a real cultural myth. This idea that you need to be working on your next album and whatever that album is, or your next song or whatever it is, like you're on the assembly line. This piece goes onto that piece, that piece, and there's a very strict order, whereas it was kind of revolutionary to start thinking about it the way that you were describing, where you don't have to just pick a book and write it. You're probably going to do a few.

Todd Henry [00:14:28]:
Personally, this is how I create. I write multiple books at once over long periods of time and fits and starts, no pun intended. Some may say that's not the right way to do it, but it works for me. So if you need someone to tell you it's okay for you to work that way as well, I'd be happy to be that voice. In the end, the goal is to start more and take action. So any advice that makes it harder for you to do that? Eh, maybe not such good advice. Do what works for you. But there's one thing we haven't addressed yet, which is sustainability.

Todd Henry [00:15:02]:
Not the save the planet kind of sustainability. I more so mean sticking with it. It's one thing to start more and act now, but doing that for the long haul means avoiding some of the common traps that sideline us. In other words, what do you watch out for as you fight to keep going? Tim Robinson recently won a Golden Globe for his show. I think you should leave a sketch comedy show known for its not safe for work, humor, and all around absurdity. Not that he's recommending you, check it out. But Andy J. Pizza is a fan.

Andy J. Pizza [00:15:35]:
One of my favorite skits from there is something that he did and wrote on Saturday Night Live. He was a Saturday Night Live writer. It made it to air. It was on one of the shows, on one of the biggest shows in the world. And guess what? He just basically did it again almost verbatim. He didn't star in the Saturday Night Live one, so he's in the actual skit in this one. But guess what? No one cared. No one knew.

Andy J. Pizza [00:16:01]:
Anybody that did know, like, hey, that's the same skit. Felt amazing to be a superfan. That's like, oh, man, you never going to know that that's actually a skit that he did, that he wrote for Santa Live. And so, yeah, I try to embody that. Like, look, no one's watching me that close. That's what I know. No one cares to that degree. And that frees you up, because, first of all, you can explore.

Andy J. Pizza [00:16:25]:
Second of all, you can repeat yourself. Third of all, you can just make huge mistakes because nobody's paying attention to that degree.

Todd Henry [00:16:36]:
One of the biggest problems that will make you want to stop before you've even started is the fear of public perception. Not just the perception of you as someone who starts more than they can finish, but the perception of the work you're creating once it leaks out, and it eventually will. What if they don't like it? What if it feels too imperfect? What if it feels too familiar, too similar to something you've done before? But letting that stop you is tragic, because, frankly, it's all bark and no bite. Believe it or not, the world has better things to do than to obsess over your every move. Honestly, no one's watching that closely. They've got far too many other things vying for their attention. If Tim Robinson can recycle an idea for an audience of millions in an attempt to simply keep going, keep producing, surely that's permission for you to take a deep breath, relax, and press publish. And as you do, pay special attention to what Andy calls the ideas that won't leave you alone.

Todd Henry [00:17:34]:
All too often, we stop working simply because we're just not sure what to keep working on. With so many new ideas sprouting up, indecision gets the best of us. He says. There's a way to overcome that indecision and to identify the ideas that are worth sticking with.

Andy J. Pizza [00:17:50]:
If it doesn't let me go, if I can't get enough conversation around it, when the passion for the idea outlives the amount, my wife will talk to me about it, or my friend, if we go to the bar or go to the coffee shop or whatever, and I'm like, okay, they're done with this. I'm not. I need more. Then that's usually what I have to focus on. And my book, invisible things, is a great example of that because it just would not let go. And so ten years later, the picture book comes out because it just wouldn't let me. It just wouldn't let me give it up.

Todd Henry [00:18:26]:
Some ideas are like trick candles on the top of your birthday cake. Just when you think you snuff them out, they reignite. Take that as a sign. Those may be the keepers. And though I wish I could tell you how to anticipate those ideas and plan accordingly, you just never know where they're going to come from. But don't let that stop you.

Ozan Varol [00:18:45]:
You're jumping from one thing to the next, not knowing exactly what's going to come next and leaning into that not knowing.

Todd Henry [00:18:53]:
Ozan Verol is an award winning professor and best selling author. He's an expert when it comes to creativity, innovation and critical thinking. He's also a rocket scientist. If anyone was smart enough to know what's next, it's Varrol.

Ozan Varol [00:19:08]:
Yet he says life is more of a jungle gym, not a ladder. There's a quote from Rumi that I love, he says, as you start to walk, on the way appears. The implication being that the way is not going to appear until you actually start walking. I think so many people want to see the precise destination and want to know all of the twists and turns with perfect clarity and perfect information before they even start walking. Which means they never move, which means the status quo sticks. But life ends up lighting the path ahead only a few steps at a time. And as you take each step, you go from not knowing to knowing, from darkness to light. And the only way to know what comes next is to start walking before you think you're ready.

Todd Henry [00:20:00]:
I hope that you walk away from this episode with the courage you need to take more swings, to fire more arrows, to put more work into the world. Don't be afraid to start more than you can finish. Make the thing that you need, as Austin Cleon suggested. As Andy J. Pizza told us, work in parallel because you never know which idea might take off and pay special attention to the ideas that just won't leave you alone. Finally, as Ozan Veral encouraged, recognize that the road often will not appear until you begin walking. So get started. If you'd like to hear full interviews with Becky Blades, Austin Cleon, Andy J.

Todd Henry [00:20:42]:
Pizza, and Ozon Varal, you can find them in the Daily creative app at DailyCreative app and listen to Andy J. Pizza's podcast called Creative Pep Talk, where I was a recent guest. On next week's episode, we're going to talk about creating well with others because that's a critical part of our process. If you enjoyed this episode, please leave us a rating or review. Wherever you listen to podcasts, it helps others find the show or subscribe to the app at DailyCreative app where you can get full interviews, daily episodes, courses, and much, much more. Daily Creative is produced by Joshua Gott, who's also our chief story architect. My name is Todd Henry. Thanks so much for listening.