As Seen By Kai ★ Davis

Ira Glass on Storytelling, part 3 of 4 (by PRI)

You will be fierce. You will be a warrior. You will make things that are not as good as you want them to be.

And you will make one after another after another.

It’s really easier for me to get afraid of calling a client, publishing a post, or talking to a stranger.

My mind starts chattering with what if scenarios:

What if they don’t need what I’m selling and hang up the phone?
What if this isn’t as good as you want it to be and no one reads it?
What if they think I’m weird and laugh at me?

It’s really easy for me to get worked up and get afraid of producing low quality work. What Ira Glass says in here is true:

Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, I wish someone told me. All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase, they quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. … And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know its normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. … You’ve just gotta fight your way through.

I never watched this video before tonight. I came across it in Megan Fisher’s post Just Keep Going.

What Ira says is true: I’ve got to keep going, keep publishing, keep failing, and keep trying new things to get through this period where I’m a little disappointed by what I’m producing.

I won’t get better if I give up.

Thanks, Ira.

And thank you for reading. Love you.