The most regretful people on earth are those who felt the call to creative work, who felt their own creative power restive and uprising, and gave to it neither power nor time.

With consummate craftsmanship, Mary Oliver has fashioned fifteen luminous prose pieces: on nature, writing, and herself and those around her. She praises Whitman, denounces cuteness, notes where to find the extraordinary, and extols solitude.

personaldevelopment

Personal Development

motivationandinspiration

Motivation & Inspiration

habits

Habits

creativity

Creativity

books

Books

Blue Pastures collects fifteen prose works from Pulitzer Prize- and National Book Award-winning poet Mary Oliver. With consummate craftsmanship, Mary Oliver has fashioned fifteen luminous prose pieces: on nature, writing, and herself and those around her. She praises Whitman, denounces cuteness, notes where to find the extraordinary, and extols solitude. Nature speaks to her and she speaks to nature. "This book is biased, opinionated; also it is also joyful, and probably there is despair here too...But the reader will find the pleasures more certain, and more constant, than the rills of despond. Thus it has turned out in my life thus far, influenced by the sustaining passions: love of the wild world, love of literature, love for and from another person."--Mary Oliver "This transcendent collection is Oliver's joyful sharing of her love of her craft."--Library Journal

Mary Oliver

Blue Pastures

As Arianna Huffington wrote : “Nothing kills creativity faster than burnout."Creativity depends on an openness to new ideas, freedom to explore, and finding purpose in your work. But all those qualities disappear when you’re burnt out.“As a metaphor for the draining of energy, burnout refers to the smothering of a fire or the extinguishing of a candle. It implies that once a fire was burning, but the fire cannot continue burning brightly unless there are sufficient resources that keep being replenished.” - Wilmar Schaufeli, Psychologist

Why (and how) burnout kills your creativity

Just because you’re facing creative burnout doesn’t mean your work expectations change.As Schaufeli continues:“Over time, employees experiencing burnout lose the capacity to provide the intense contributions that make an impact. If they continue working, the result is more like smouldering–uneventful and inconsequential–than burning. From their own perspective or that of others, they accomplish less."This is especially disastrous for people whose jobs are focused on creativity and who aren’t able to draw a line between work and “everything else.”

Burnout leads you to achieve less

The cycle of burnout is especially bad for people who need to be more creative at work . Your ideas were what made people pile more and more work on you in the first place. And it’s easy to fall back into those patterns the second you feel ready to return to work.Coming back from burnout and rebuilding your creative muscle is as much about understanding and setting limitations as it is getting that spark back.

Ways to come back from creative burnout

Burnout occurs when job demands consistently outweigh the resources available.In other words, are you trying to squeeze too much out of the limited time/energy/motivation you have? If so, the first thing you need to do is to set proper limits.While this might sound like a scary proposition for your post-burnout brain (that’s so used to taking on everything) limitations can be creatively empowering. Research has found , when people face scarcity in resources “they give themselves the freedom to use resources in less conventional ways – because they have to.”

Understand your limitations (and take advantage of them)

So what resources can you limit? While there are many options, the most powerful resource is your time.Time management and focus are some of the most important creativity tools we wield. When you limit your time spent on specific tasks, you give yourself permission to make choices. Instead of fighting perfectionism , you learn to stop when things are good enough.

Resources

Rescuing your time can help you with this in a number of ways.First, you can set a daily goal for total time worked and get an alert when you go over. For example, setting goals for total device time, time spent on distracting apps, and mobile time so you know when you're getting off track.Next, you can set daily goals for your time in specific tasks — like writing, designing, or coding — and get alerts when you’ve gone over.

Rescue Time

When your mental resources are limited, you need to make sure they’re going to the right tasks.Burnout decimates your motivation, making working on projects you’re uninterested in an agonizing process. Dr. Christina Maslach, one of the pioneers of occupational burnout research writes:“People experiencing burnout are not simply exhausted or overwhelmed by their workload. They also have lost a psychological connection with their work, which has implications for their motivation and identity.”

Say no to things that suck the creativity out of you

To rebuild your creative confidence post-burnout, you need to rebuild that identity in your work. That means reigniting your spark with creative tasks.As Emily Haines, lead singer of the band Metric writes:“The only time that I feel things start to spin out is when I buy into the whole ‘work really hard and then just don’t work at all’ idea…The whole point of being an artist is that it can provide a fluid life.”Learning how to say no isn’t easy (in work and in life). But it’s a key step if you want to move past creative burnout.

Creative post-burnout

Sometimes you need to tackle a problem head-on. With creative burnout, it’s often better to take a side-on approach.While your first impulse will most likely be to dive back into what you’re used to, that can quickly backfire. It’s easy to overstretch your limits when you go back into old daily routines . Instead, look for a creative task with lower stakes to help ease you back into things.

Find a completely unrelated creative outlet

Unrelated creative tasks can help inspire you, but there are also other ways to fill your “creative well.” The architect and designer Emily Fischer writes:“You have to feed yourself creatively. You have to give yourself that creative fuel. I hate using the term ‘self-care’ but I think that’s a part of it.”How you give yourself self-care is up to you. It could mean going to bed an hour earlier. Making time for a walk in nature. Going to an art show. Or even just doing something fun.

Give yourself permission to fill your creative well

One of the hardest parts of bouncing back from creative burnout is dealing with the nagging voice inside your head.The self-critic is something we all face. At times it can get so loud that it drowns out our ability to push through.There’s a simple tool you can use to silence your inner critic: deadlines. We’re talking about short, yet strict deadlines. Let’s say you need to write a chapter of a book. Instead of sitting down and banging your head against your screen for hours on end, break it up into tiny increments and set tight deadlines.

Give yourself strict, yet realistic deadlines

Burnout is devastating for anyone. But it can be especially hard on those whose jobs depend on being creative and innovative every single day.

mentalhealth

Mental Health

timemanagement

Time Management

Powerful Ways to Bounce Back from Creative Burnout

Daily Rituals is a compilation of the best practices and habits of successful people from different fields aimed to help anyone increase productivity, get past writer’s block, and become more creative and efficient in their everyday work.Everyone is struggling with increasing productivity, reducing procrastination, and overall improving themselves both in their professional and personal life. Certain daily habits can help us tap into the productive, undisrupted state of mind that we’re so desperately seeking to achieve.

Daily Rituals – Book Summary

Sitting at the same spot in the morning, enjoying our usual cup of coffee at the same hours, or other small habits like these contribute to increased efficiency. How do I know? Daily Rituals explains how geniuses and successful people have developed certain minuscule habits in their daily routines that helped them achieve greatness.

This is not something humanity discovered recently, as history shows. Psychologists and researchers have tried to wrap their heads around ways to trick the mind into being more focused and centered for a long time now. Luckily, they did discover some pretty interesting habits and practices that can help us do so.

<ul><li>You can become more productive by establishing daily habits, drinking coffee, and finding inspiration around.</li><li>Become ready for work by connecting with what speaks to you the most. </li><li>Keep your relationships healthy to keep being productive and focused on your work.</li></ul>Exploring these lessons in depth will help you understand their main point, so that’s what we’ll do in the following lines!

Three of my favorite lessons from this book:

There are certain things that artists, thinkers, or overall successful people in their field have in common. While they don’t do these things similarly, they do repeat certain actions that help them become more productive. One of them is working at a certain time during the day. Some artists prefer working at night, while others rely on the daytime to do things. Find your best time and try to focus on work as much as possible during those hours. The other way people become productive is by consuming certain drinks, like coffee.

Lesson 1: Inspiration can come from anything, from daily rituals, a warm drink, or a sunset.

Beethoven and Mozart were both known for drinking large amounts of coffee to become productive. While the book recommends staying away from too much of everything, and completely avoiding dangerous substances, it’s alright if you indulge in cups of tea or coffee to get in the mood for work.These accomplished people usually enjoyed such treats in their favorite spot right before work, which is also psychologically proven to boost efficiency. Our brain associates these actions with a prework sort of workout that gets us in the mood.

Lastly, writers and researchers often look for inspiration within their surroundings. They try to draw inspiration from a sunrise, plants, animals, or other elements from natural words. People that are close to you can also help you get into the mood for work. So make sure to surround yourself with these types of humans.

The book talks about different authors and their ways of staying close to their craft, becoming inspired, and writing effectively. Some found peace and motivation in nature, so they’d take long walks until inspiration struck them. Then they’d rush home to create and design their pieces.Others found that sexual intercourse or pleasure derived from bodily functions gives them enough inspiration to write for days. Baths or long showers also seemed to be popular choices for some authors. The point is, that everyone has different ways of becoming connected to themselves and becoming inspired.

Lesson 2: There are numerous ways to get inspired and stay connected to your craft.

As a writer, it can be challenging to start creating out of thin air and seeing a blank page can be that much more demoralizing. For this reason, you have to find what can help you get in the mood for work and practice that when you feel like you’re lacking motivation.

Lastly, keep in mind that there’s no wrong or right in the creative process. Everyone gets inspired or works on their craft in their particular way. What worked for these people might not prove to be efficient for you, but that’s alright. The point is to find your muse! Whether it means working during the day or night, drinking coffee, taking a shower, or anything at all.

Any social science in the world can agree on one common fact: Our relationships define us and they also affect our mood. They are the pylon of our social life and they strongly impact our mental health. Friends, partners, parents, and other family members, all have a great impact on our work.Keeping relationships in good parameters and also nurturing our ties with those we love keeps us in great mental and physical shape. The main point is to draw inspiration from these good ties and keep our souls at peace.

Lesson 3: Your connections to the people in your life can make or break your creative mind.

Authors have long relied on their partners for their well-being, treating them as a muse in the process of creation. It doesn’t come as a shock to find out that this is largely how many famous pieces of writing emerged.Partners or friends can also help us with everyday chores and alleviate some of the pressure from mundane tasks. This way, you can append more time creating and designing your craft. You can see this type of relationship in the lives of Karl Marx, Immanuel Kant, Gustav Mahler, and many more.

Do you want to inspire yourself as a writer and become as successful in life as the writers of Daily Rituals? Then this is the book for you. In this compilation of biographies from the most notorious writers in history, you can learn the habits and practices that helped them become so successful!The book reveals how history’s greatest minds have developed their daily habits and rituals, to help the reader develop their own creative process.

Daily Rituals – Book Review

The 40-year-old writer who is suffering from writer’s block and wants to overcome it, the 24-year-old wannabe writer who wants to learn about the lives of famous artists in history, or the 50-year-old person who is fascinated with history and literature and wants to enjoy a good read from their area of expertise.

Who would I recommend Daily Rituals to?

“A solid routine fosters a well-worn groove for one’s mental energies and helps stave off the tyranny of moods.”-Mason Curry

Author Quote

Daily Rituals summary is a compilation of the best practices and habits of successful people to increase productivity and be more creative.

productivity

Productivity

Daily Rituals Summary

The most sincere compliment we can pay is attention.

A humble, yet grand, gift: the silent, yet resounding, attention. 

One of the South's great artists is highlighted here, honoring him on the centennial of his birth with contributions from art historians, curators, and many others, probing the mysteries of his work. (Fine Arts)

communication

Communication

artsandculture

Society, Arts & Culture

In his sixty-two years Walter Anderson was stupendously productive. He created much of his art in obscurity, and only after his death in 1965 did the magnitude of his labors and genius come to light. His works teem in the thousands and take many forms-watercolors, oil paintings, drawings, block prints, figurines, pottery, and murals. He produced more than ten thousand pen-and-ink illustrations, as well as poems, stories, journals, and letters. Bringing together more than 175 full-color images, including works never before shown to the public, this catalog places Anderson in the context of his peers in twentieth-century American art and portrays him both as a major artist and a renaissance man. He was born in New Orleans in 1903, graduated from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and spent his life on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. He and his two brothers became artists under the guidance of their mother. Peter and Mac established Shearwater Pottery, and Walter created murals for the community of Ocean Springs. Walter Anderson was absorbed by poetry, music, art history, and natural science. A loner, he found his identity in the wilderness of pine savannahs and barrier islands along the coast. It was this natural wild that most imbued his art. To honor Anderson on his centennial, this representative sampling of his work reveals him as an eccentric genius who explored the profound order of creation and made spiritual excursions into the terra incognita of the mind and inner self. The contributors to this volume include noted art historians and curators from the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York and the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., the daughter of Walter Anderson, and research staff at the Walter Anderson Museum of Art. They write in praise and in assessment of Anderson's art, share insights into his mysteries and techniques, and raise public awareness of his significance. Patricia Pinson is curator of the Walter Anderson Museum of Art in Ocean Springs, Mississippi.

Walter Inglis Anderson

Colin T. Eisler

The Art of Walter Anderson

Expert Secrets teaches you how to create and implement an informative marketing plan and putting it into practice, while also showing you what problem you must solve for your prospects or teach them how to do it themselves.When it comes to business and marketing, the process of turning an idea into practice can be quite lengthy and challenging. Fortunately, Expert Secrets can teach you all about it – and more. The book is packed with proven practices that turn any marketing plan into an instant success.

Expert Secrets – Book Summary

If you want to learn a step-by-step process on how to create a marketing plan that sells and has prospects come your way, look no more because we’re about to jump right into it in the following lines.

<ul><li>The first ten secrets of this book teach you how to create a mass movement and have everyone believe in your pitch.</li><li>A perfect webinar starts from a rapport and ends with a pitch that sells. </li><li>The five-email-sequence will help you build and implement the most successful email campaign you’ve seen.</li></ul>Now, let’s explore these lessons in detail and see how they can help you learn and practice marketing like a pro.

For now, here are three of the most relevant lessons from the book:

<ul><li>The first secret is to create an attractive or charismatic leader that’s the face of your product. Brand yourself around a niche.</li><li>The second secret is to glorify your cause and build a movement or a cult around it. Make it seem big and important. </li><li>The third one is to turn the first two into a vehicle of change. Make your branded persona and your offerings look like a huge opportunity.</li><li>The fourth secret is strictly related, as it implies building early results by giving people what they want.</li></ul>

Lesson 1: The first ten secrets of the book are the most powerful tools for everyone looking to build a pitch that sells.

<ul><li>The fifth secret is the big domino. In this part of your marketing plan, your aim is to make everything else seem irrelevant compared to your offering.</li><li>The sixth secret implies taking prospects from emotions to ration by explaining how you were one of them, but after this product, you’ve changed.</li><li>The seventh idea presented tells you how to present yourself as a hero who’s been through a lot of change and became a new person.</li><li>The eighth secret explains how you can bridge all your stories, from your modest beginning to your highest achievement.</li></ul>

<ul><li>The ninth secret is about changing their false beliefs by acknowledging that you too had them at some point, but managed to overcome them.</li><li>Lastly, the tenth secret is to answer your prospect’s questions and internal and external struggles.</li></ul>

When you’re making a webinar, you have to think about 4 different elements:<ul><li>Build rapport</li><li>Emphasize the One Thing</li><li>The Three Secrets (vehicle, internal and external struggles) </li><li>Stack the deck for sale</li></ul>When you’re planning your webinar, the first thing you need to do is build rapport. This is a simple way of saying that you need to make people feel comfortable with you so they’ll listen to what you have to say.

Lesson 2: To build the perfect webinar, you’ll have to follow these four steps.

The second element of a successful webinar is to emphasize One Thing. This should be the central focus of your presentation and can help guide the entire presentation, as well as give attendees something concrete to take away from it.The third element is The Three Secrets: Vehicle (your product), Internal Struggles (problems that your product solves), and External Struggles (the competition). These three elements will help your audience understand why their lives will be better if they purchase your product.

The final element is Stacking the Deck for Sale: this means making it easy for attendees to buy from you during or after the webinar. You can do this by providing links, offering discounts on products or services, offering a free trial, and having contact information available at all times.

This 5-email sequence is about the origin story, a new opportunity, internal belief change, external belief change, and the stack or sales.The origin story is an email that outlines how you found your product. You can use this email to provide some context for how you got into the business, or how you found your new company. This email should be short and sweet because it’s just an introduction to what comes next.

Lesson 3: If you want to build a successful email campaign, try the five-email-sequence first.

The second email explains the new opportunity that has been presented to you. This is where you talk about what happened and how it will affect you personally and professionally. If any changes in your life or career resulted from this opportunity, this is where you explain them!After that comes the internal belief change: why does this opportunity make sense to me? Why do I feel like it’s worth pursuing? What does it mean for my future? How am I going to approach it? This is where you write about any internal shifts or challenges that come with taking on this new opportunity.

Next comes the external belief change: what does this opportunity mean for other people? What does it mean for our team? For our organization? For our industry as a whole? Make this part about other stakeholders in particular.Lastly, the stack or the sales is where you get to pitch and monetize your offerings, but not before they realize how much money they’ll make for believing in you. This part is about mutual growth and it tells people that they need to invest in themselves by investing in you.

Expert Secrets is a book that offers tips and tricks for anyone who wants to make money online. It has been called one of the best books on Internet marketing, especially since it gives you a complete system of how to get started making money online today, without any prior experience with making money online or starting an online business.

Expert Secrets – Book Review

You’ll learn how to create an irresistible offer that will sell itself without even having to be sold because it speaks directly to them! In addition, you’ll learn how to create a sales funnel that sells each of your products three times more often without any extra effort on your part!

The 27-year-old start-up founder, the 24-year-old graduate student who wants to start making money online, or the 35-year-old marketer and blogger who wants to monetize and scale their side gig.

Who would I recommend the Expert Secrets to?

“Showing them that it didn’t just work for you, but it also worked for people just like them, is the key to getting them to believe in your framework”-Russell Brunson

Expert Secrets summary teaches you how to create and implement an informative marketing plan and putting it into practice.

marketingandsales

Marketing & Sales

entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship

business

Business

Expert Secrets Summary

1. e4/d42. threaten something3. knight before bishop4. most suitable square once for all5. pawn move not more than two6. no queen move7. castle early and kingside8. atleast one pawn in the centre9. control the centre10. no sacrifice without adequate reason<ul><li>pawn sacrifice for advantage </li><li>deflect the queen</li><li>prevent castling</li><li>build up a strong attack</li></ul>

10 practical rules of opening

1. how does it affect the centre?2. how does it fit in with the development of my other pieces and pawns?

2 question on each move of the opening

1. pawn structure2. mobility3. king safety4. material5. combinations

5 factors of evaluation

1. strong point: holding the e5 pawn2. giving up e5 pawn for counter-attack to white give up its e4 pawn

2 types of defense by black in e4 e5

Not a list of moves, but simple and logical explanations of opening systems.

philosophy

Philosophy

entertainment

Entertainment

Explains the objectives of all openings and provides illustrations of King Pawn, Queen Pawn, and irregular openings.

Reuben Fine

The Ideas Behind the Chess Openings

You don’t win alone. That’s just how it is.”

“Bokuto is the kind of person that compels you to give it you all, because you know he’s giving it his all.”

“Even if we’re not confident that we’ll win, even if others tell us we don’t stand a chance, we must never tell ourselves that.”

“It’s not your place to give up.”

“All of you should be able to make it! To the highest limit, to the farthest limit!”

“Today might be the chance to grasp the chance to let your talent bloom.”

“The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.”

Ever since he saw the legendary player known as the "Little Giant" compete at the national volleyball finals, Shoyo Hinata has been aiming to be the best volleyball player ever! He decides to join the team at the high school the Little Giant went to-and then surpass him. Who says you need to be tall to play volleyball when you can jump higher than anyone else? After losing his first and last volleyball match against Tobio Kageyama, the King of the Court, Shoyo Hinata swears to become his rival after graduating middle school. But what happens when the guy who is supposed to be his rival ends up being his teammate?!

Understand yourself and those around you.

psychology

Psychology

movies

Movies & Shows

Ever since he saw the legendary player known as the "Little Giant" compete at the national volleyball finals, Shoyo Hinata has been aiming to be the best volleyball player ever! He decides to join the team at the high school the Little Giant went to-and then surpass him. Who says you need to be tall to play volleyball when you can jump higher than anyone else? After losing his first and last volleyball match against Tobio Kageyama, "the King of the Court," Shoyo Hinata swears to become his rival after graduating middle school. But what happens when the guy he wants to defeat ends up being his teammate?!

Haruichi Furudate

Haikyu!!

<ul><li>The way you present your art, and what people know about it, completely changes how they perceive it.</li><li>Your creative decisions continue all the way to the end. Every step so far has been a creative expansion of your original idea.</li><li>The way you communicate with the world, how you make your music available, the stories you tell about your music and yourself - These are all the continuation of your creation.</li><li>Marketing is the final extension of your art.</li><li>A creative description also suggests that your work will be creative, too.</li></ul>

Art doesn’t end at the edge of the canvas

<ul><li>Turning off your creativity — trying to play it safe — is the worst thing you could do. Get confident, creative, playful, and experimental. Break the rules. Try some things that nobody else has done.</li><li>Think of how comfortable you are with your instrument — improvising, experimenting, and having fun with it. Now be that comfortable when marketing. Improvise. Experiment. And have fun with it.</li><li>Norms are for businesses without personality. Pour your personality and philosophy into the way you do business. People actually appreciate it when you do things in a surprising way. </li></ul>

Business is creative

Everything usually feels so serious — like if you make one mistake, it’ll all end in disaster. But really everything you do is just a test: an experiment to see what happens.It’s actually impossible to fail if your only mission was to see what happens!

This is a test. This is only a test

Don’t be so plain or obvious that there’s nothing left to wonder. But don’t be so cryptic that they give up.<ul><li>Give just enough to make people curious. Let them search for explanations, clues, or context.</li><li>Once something is explained, it stops captivating your curiosity.</li><li>Once people start wondering, they can’t stand not knowing.</li><li>Make up a curious answer to common questions. Make people curious.</li></ul>

Make people wonder

<ul><li> Put as much creativity into your marketing as you do your work. Marketing is just an extension of your work.</li><li>Start trying things just to see what happens.</li><li>Add creative restrictions when you're stuck.</li><li>Have a unique voice and persona. Stick to it.</li></ul>

Marketing your work

<ul><li>Marketing means being considerate. Marketing means making it easy for people to notice you, relate to you, remember you, and tell their friends about you.</li><li>The best marketers are the best listeners. Marketing means listening to what people need and creating something surprisingly tailored for them.</li><li>Marketing means getting to know people, making a deeper connection, and keeping in touch. Ask what people want, listen closely, and give it to them.</li></ul>

What marketing means

<ul><li>Set the tone. Pull in those people who love that kind of thing. Proudly alienate those that don’t.</li><li>Be different. Show who you are. It gives people’s lives more variety, too.</li></ul>

The way you communicate with people is part of your art

When communicating with your fans and contacts, don’t try to sound bigger than you are.<ul><li>Don’t appear flawless. Show a charming flaw. Confidence attracts, but vulnerability endears.</li><li>Don’t use corporate speak to try to sound like you’re a big business. It comes across as fake, insecure, or spam.</li><li>Your fans are your friends. Speak to them like real people. Be weird. Prove you’re a real person. Write every post or email as if it was from you to your best friend.</li><li>People have grown deaf to the bland language of big business. It all sounds like contrived posturing. It has no personality — no voice.</li></ul>

Don’t try to sound big

<ul><li>Prepare the most succinct version of your reason for contacting someone. Make it so short that if the person only has 30 seconds to talk, you could communicate your point, ask your question, and get the answer.</li><li>With real-time communication, like text or phone, just start by asking if they have time. If they do, then take the time to get personal, be a friend, and have a good conversation. But if they don’t, then just use the short version.</li><li>With non-real-time communication, like email, assume you’ve only got ten seconds. Edit your emails down to a few sentences</li></ul>

Considerate communication

<ul><li>People send business to people they like. It’s all more personal than I had expected.</li><li>Don’t always be selling yourself. That keeps people at a distance from you because it shows you’re not friends.</li><li>The initial contact usually happens for professional reasons. Even if it starts professional, get personal as soon as possible. Be a friend. That’s how things are done.</li></ul>

Get personal

<ul><li>People like doing favors. They’ll gladly show off their knowledge.</li><li>Contact everyone you know and ask. Friends of friends will know how to get everything you want in life.</li><li>By making them feel important, connected, and needed, you’ll be doing them a favor, too.</li></ul>

Don’t be afraid to ask for favors

As you climb the ladder of success, giving a gift may go a long way and be remembered for years.<ul><li>Get presents for the people you’ve met that are probably under-appreciated.</li><li>Be generous. You’re going to see the same faces for years to come.</li></ul>

 Small gifts go a long way

Someone doesn’t reply, so you assume they must be swamped in work. You wait a week, and contact them again. If still no reply, you feel sympathy that they must be really overwhelmed. You wait a week, and try again. If still no reply, you try to reach them a different way.Overwhelmed people don’t have time for all the random first contacts. Patience and persistence separate you from the rest, and show how much you care.

Repeatedly follow up to show you care

Start with rejection therapy, but once you get into any of these places, your credibility sets you apart from the rest and opens more doors. You can even re-approach the places that rejected you before.

Overcome the fear of rejection by constantly exposing yourself to it

<ul><li>Extreme talent requires extreme practice. Extreme success requires extreme focus — saying no to distractions and leisure.</li><li>Extreme fame requires extreme ambition — taking the spotlight and its pressure.</li><li>When you are not practicing, someone somewhere is practicing. And when you meet him, he will win.</li></ul>

You don’t get extreme results without extreme actions

<ul><li>We’re drawn to the confidence of someone who is not trying to please anyone. We admire a strong, defiant stand. You can use this to attract your future fans.</li><li>You can say, “Don’t listen to this if you’re happy with your life.” Then people who hate all that happy crap will be intrigued.</li><li>Loudly reject 99%. It signals who you are. When someone in your target 1% hears you proudly excluding the rest, they’ll be drawn to you.</li><li>Make sure they can find you. You want the passionate fans of your niche, not the casual fans of the mainstream.</li></ul>

Proudly exclude most people

Every person you’ve ever met has the potential to help you.<ul><li>If you keep in touch and stay on their mind, there’s a good chance an opportunity will come your way.</li><li>When you contact each person, just find out how they’re doing. See if you can help them in any way.</li><li>This regular contact should be unselfish, and sincerely caring about how they are. Don’t ask a favor unless you’ve been in touch recently. </li><li>Most people are so bad at keeping in touch that they will really appreciate you doing it.</li><li>It takes effort to meet people. So once you’ve met someone, get the most out of the relationship for both of you.</li></ul>

Stay in touch with hundreds of people

As you get more successful, share that success with those who helped you years ago.When you are famous, return the favors. Reach out to contact them, and invite them into your new world. (Don’t wait for them to ask.)

Include everyone in your success

a philosophy of getting your work to the world by being creative, considerate, resourceful, and connected

music

Music

Every creator has the same problems with marketing. <ul><li>How do you call attention to your work?</li><li>How do you get your creations into people's minds and hearts?</li><li>How do you get fans to tell their friends?</li><li>How do you charge money for your labor of love?</li><li>How do you get the media to help?</li></ul> Derek Sivers was a professional musician before he started a music distribution company that helped 150,000 musicians sell their music to over four million people. So after years of living the problems, he was able to learn the solutions. "Your Music and People" shares a successful philosophy of getting your work to the world by being creative, considerate, resourceful, and connected. It's not just for musicians.Though it uses music as the example, it is meant for any creator trying to reach people. Early readers called it one of the best books ever written on business marketing. Example points include: <ul><li>Business is just as creative as music.</li><li>Marketing is an extension of your art.</li><li>Marketing means being considerate. Focus on others.</li><li>Being weird is considerate.</li><li>People skills are counterintuitive. To be helped, be helpful.</li><li>Persistence is polite.</li><li>Call the destination and ask for directions.</li><li>Get specific about what you want.</li><li>Be extreme and sharply defined. Proudly exclude most people.</li><li>Money is just a neutral representation of value. Be valuable to others - not just yourself. People like to pay.</li><li>Nobody knows the future, so focus on what doesn't change.</li></ul> The first 10,000 early buyers of "Your Music and People" have posted hundreds of 5-star reviews at sive.rs/m - but it is now being released to a wider audience.

Derek Sivers is an author of philosophy and entrepreneurship, known for his surprising quotable insights and pithy succinct writing style.Formerly a musician, programmer, TED speaker, and circus clown, he sold his first company for $22 million and gave all the money to charity.Sivers’ books (How to Live, Hell Yeah or No, Your Music and People, Anything You Want) and newest projects are at his website: https://sive.rs/

Derek Sivers

Your Music and People

Your Music and People: creative and considerate fame

"If you're alive, you're a creative person."

"It's a simple and generous rule of life that whatever you practice, you will improve at."

"if I am not actively creating something, then I am probably actively destroying something".

"It seems to me that the less I fight my fear, the less it fights back. If I can relax, fear relaxes, too."

"The universe buries strange jewels deep within us all, and then stands back to see if we can find them."

"Give your mind a job to do, or else it will find a job to do, and you might not like the job it invents."

"Be the weirdo who dares to enjoy."

The instant #1 NEW YORK TIMES Bestseller "A must read for anyone hoping to live a creative life... I dare you not to be inspired to be brave, to be free, and to be curious.” —PopSugar From the worldwide bestselling author of Eat Pray Love and City of Girls: the path to the vibrant, fulfilling life you’ve dreamed of. Readers of all ages and walks of life have drawn inspiration and empowerment from Elizabeth Gilbert’s books for years. Now this beloved author digs deep into her own generative process to share her wisdom and unique perspective about creativity. With profound empathy and radiant generosity, she offers potent insights into the mysterious nature of inspiration. She asks us to embrace our curiosity and let go of needless suffering. She shows us how to tackle what we most love, and how to face down what we most fear. She discusses the attitudes, approaches, and habits we need in order to live our most creative lives. Balancing between soulful spirituality and cheerful pragmatism, Gilbert encourages us to uncover the “strange jewels” that are hidden within each of us. Whether we are looking to write a book, make art, find new ways to address challenges in our work, embark on a dream long deferred, or simply infuse our everyday lives with more mindfulness and passion, Big Magic cracks open a world of wonder and joy.

The instant #1 NEW YORK TIMES Bestseller "A must read for anyone hoping to live a creative life... I dare you not to be inspired to be brave, to be free, and to be curious.” —PopSugar From the worldwide bestselling author of Eat Pray Love and City of Girls: the path to the vibrant, fulfilling life you’ve dreamed of.   Readers of all ages and walks of life have drawn inspiration and empowerment from Elizabeth Gilbert’s books for years. Now this beloved author digs deep into her own generative process to share her wisdom and unique perspective about creativity. With profound empathy and radiant generosity, she offers potent insights into the mysterious nature of inspiration. She asks us to embrace our curiosity and let go of needless suffering. She shows us how to tackle what we most love, and how to face down what we most fear. She discusses the attitudes, approaches, and habits we need in order to live our most creative lives. Balancing between soulful spirituality and cheerful pragmatism, Gilbert encourages us to uncover the “strange jewels” that are hidden within each of us. Whether we are looking to write a book, make art, find new ways to address challenges in our work,  embark on a dream long deferred, or simply infuse our everyday lives with more mindfulness and passion, Big Magic cracks open a world of wonder and joy.

Elizabeth Gilbert is an accomplished writer whose work has resonated with readers around the world. Elizabeth Gilbert has published several books that explore a range of topics, from fiction to nonfiction, and has received critical acclaim for the ability to weave compelling narratives. Elizabeth Gilbert's writing style is known for its depth and authenticity, and has earned quite a loyal following of readers.

Elizabeth Gilbert

Big Magic

A company that builds affordable products creates awareness and provides access to the poor will experience phenomenal success.According to Professor C.K. Prahalad, the BOP market has been viewed as a goldmine for reaping profits in business. Rather than just focusing on corporate social responsibility (CSR), the BOP market should be the focus of core business: <ul><li>meeting unmet social needs and incorporating new consumer preferences to serve the BOP market, </li><li>create opportunities that have substantial value for the market. </li></ul>One example of this is the growth of microfinance.

Developing the Innovator’s Mindset

The Bottom of the Pyramid is a strategic concept coined by late professor C.K. Prahalad that emphasizes innovation at the grassroots levels of society.

Collectively, the world's billions of poor people have immense untapped buying power. Prahalad's global bestseller shows why companies can't afford to ignore "Bottom of the Pyramid" (BOP) markets. Now available in paperback, it offers a blueprint for driving the radical innovation companies will need to profit in emerging markets, and using those innovations to become more competitive everywhere.

The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid

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