grassrootsy

Ignore Everybody and Just DO

"Please hire me. I'm a hard worker"

Ok, I admit.  Last week’s post was a bit brutal. But the more I look over various chapters of MacLeod’s Ignore Everybody: And 39 Other Keys to Creativity, the more I realize that he is offering the reader two choices. DO or DON’T.  You either DO your passion or you sit back and watch others do theirs.  It’s as simple as that. And the kicker is that if YOU don’t do your thing, it will never get done.

“The best way to get approval is to not need it.”
~Hugh MacLeod

Sovereignty:  ”It doesn’t have to be big. It just has to be yours.”
…and when it’s yours, no one but you can tell you what to do with it.  As independent artists we often make the mistake of trying to do what singer/songwriter XYZ has done.  But originality always wins out. See Creating Value: Is your Music Worth Something?

Grassrootsy  talks often about mimicking other artist.  See Mimic the Artists You Respect. Learning from people who are more experienced than you is essential; but mimicking is not the same as copying.  Take what others have done and put your own spin on it.

Sovereignty is ownership.  If it’s not yours, you don’t own it.

Power:    ”Power is never given. Power is taken”
…and when you have sovereignty, power will follow. You don’t need someone to give you control over something you already own. If you’re an artist looking for that “big break”, make sure you’re making as many breakthroughs as possible on your own.  No one wants a freeloader when they can have a hard worker.

Consider the following:

• Do you truly own what you have?
• If you owned a record label, would you bring yourself on as one of your artists?
• Are your methods original or have you been trying too  hard to copy someone else?
• Are you confident in yourself or are you continually looking for other people to affirm you?

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