There is a Buddhist proverb–when a student is ready, the teacher will appear.
I must be ready when I spotted Austin Kleon’s book How to Steal Like an Artist in a newsletter from a bookstore.
Out of a list of one hundred, I selected three. How to Steal Like an Artist was way above the other two. I read it in one sitting. What followed next, as they say, is history.
In the book, Austin Kleon suggests ten transformative principles to inspire creativity:
- Steal like an artist
- Don’t wait until you know who you are to get started
- Write the book you want to read
- Use your hands
- Side projects and hobbies are important
- The secret: do good work and share it with people
- Geography is no longer our master
- Be nice (the world is a small town)
- Be boring (it is the only way to get work done)
- Creativity is subtraction
None of these ideas were original. I had heard them before. But what they did was give me permission to go ahead and just do it. I have already implemented five of them and working on the rest.
Aspiring writers, musicians, and artists, if you haven’t already, check out How to Steal Like an Artist. Here is one of Austin Kleon’s most inspiring videos.