Beautiful Distractions

Something that I find difficult currently is the long view and the time and energy it takes to build something slowly and consistently. 

If you type anything related to “How to start…” “A blog” “A business” “Your career” you will get many results around the ten mistakes you’re making, or the top ten things you need to do first, or the shiny thing you need before you start.

These almost always come with a sales pitch for something.

This pen, that course, this way, that way, this way.

Stop.

It has taken me years and many wasted resources both time and financial to internalize an important key concept:  There will never be a substitute for doing the work.

Yes, there are shortcuts, yes there are life hacks, yes there is outsourcing.  This is all great.
It does not replace the work, it simply amplifies and often complicates the work.

If you are starting out as a carpenter and someone were to tell you “Hey bud, you gotta buy this twenty four carat golden hammer.” You would call bullshit.

If you’re starting out as a blogger and someone tells you that you need a $2000 macbook pro? Bullshit.*

There’s a lot of talk in the video creator community about “Gear not mattering.”  A great and lame debate is forming.

A lot of it is hypocritical because the same people telling you that gear doesn’t matter, the pen doesn’t matter and so on, are also realizing they want to make a living at their craft so they turn around and want to sell you a pen, or an affiliate link to a pen or computer or camera. 

It’s not that the pen or the computer or even the golden hammer don’t matter. They at some point do matter (well - except the golden hammer, gold is actually really soft I believe).

It’s rather that they are very much beside the point.  You can start making videos with a smartphone or a $100-200 camera, and eventually buy a shmancy camera.  You can start writing with a goddamn crayon if you want! (and you probably did if you were ever a kid at one point)

The domain name for this blog does not matter.  It’s a preference, I like having my name at the top, and I decided to pay for it - but it was absolutely unnecessary as a first step in writing.  The two are not connected, and they are barely loosely related.

Sure at some point, you may want to upgrade things, paint the walls of the studio, add some photos to the blog posts, but so very very much of what is out in the world today is a distraction, a beautiful, compelling and endless distraction from simply putting in consistent time and energy. 



*The number of people using a macbook pro when all they need it for is microsoft word and to answer emails is astounding.  It’s like hitting a tiny nail with a sledgehammer that costs $2000.  Save your money!

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