The Secrets of Successful Creative People
I don’t believe in talent. I understand that ability exists, but I don’t subscribe to the belief that it lands on you from above or is somehow stored in your DNA from birth. I don’t believe in the talent myth. I believe in self awareness, force of will, and action. If luck lends a hand, you might get there quicker, but otherwise, it is self awareness, intention and graft.
I believe that creative people (and not just creative people) have some similar characteristics and qualities that make them successful.
This is my take on some of the secret qualities of successful creative people:
CURIOSITY: You’ve gotta be curious, you’ve got to want to know, it’s gotta bug you to shit if you don’t know, and when you do, you can rest. It isn’t some neurotic never ending state of anxiety, it’s a healthy search to know and to understand. Successful people understand their limits and seek the knowledge they need to go beyond them.
RESILIENCE: You’ve gotta be tough. You don’t have to be an asshole. Some successful people are assholes. Some are not. It’s not compulsory. But resilience IS important. You have to be able to take the knocks, because there’s going to be plenty of them. You have to be able to get knocked down, and get back up, down and back up, down and back up. You have to be able to be knocked out, KO – and still start again. Resilience is essential for successful people.
HEALTHY ATTITUDE TO FAILURE: Without doubt one of THE most essential qualities in a successful person is a healthy attitude to failure. Failure is part of the road to success. You’re in Glasgow and you want to go to Edinburgh, you might drive through Falkirk. When you’re in Falkirk, are you FROM Falkirk? By no means. So, when you’re driving from where you are now to where you want to be, you’re going to spend some time in Failure. And a bit like Falkirk, it isn’t very nice and you don’t want to spend too much time there. (Only joking Falkirk, you know I love the Kelpies).
I don’t mean that you have to get some hippie bullshit positive thinking attitude to failure. Failure hurts like hell. And in our society, we don’t reward failure. If you can’t sing, you’re considered a failure as a singer. But failure offers unique opportunities to learn. The first few weeks of ourfull time acting course at Acting Coach Scotland focus a lot around embracing failure, become unafraid, kicking the habit of a fear of failure.
Don’t seek failure. But when you experience it, the obstacle becomes the way.
SELF CONFIDENCE/LOW EXPECTATION: To be successful requires low expectations. WHAT? Yes it does. Expectations are terribly for success. They do not reward their fulfilment and they punish failure. Replace your expectations with achievable goals – that’s what successful people do. Self Confidence is more important than expectations. If you go in with high belief in your ability to do this, you’ll massively increase your chances of success. That’s directly the opposite of arriving expecting a result.
NO BLAME, EXCUSES or DENIAL: Successful people don’t blame others, don’t make excuses and don’t act in denial of the facts. Losers do.
So these are just 5 of the secret characteristics of successful creative people, if you seek to cultivate these qualities in yourself, I have no doubt. You’ll be emailing me in the next few years to tell me of your success.