I saw a tweet recently joking that the very first books were audiobooks.

Doesn’t a clear sense of self sound nice? While we’re at it, why not strong goals, more new adventures, and good friends to go along with that? Let’s talk about how to achieve this. 

Temporal landmarks are beginnings and ends of arbitrary periods of time. A new year, the first of the month, Mondays.

There’s a lot of opportunity for freelancers to make money contracting to creative agencies, because interestingly enough, the freelancer has a real leverage in negotiations with agencies. 

You have to be aware of this. You have a different goal than the agency, and they have a different goal than the brand. The trickle-down of these goals can taint your workflow. 

We’ve all had needy clients who reach out too often with elementary questions. It’s mind-numbing.

The pit-in-your-stomach fear of looking stupid can be eliminated if you accept the fact that what you’re doing is public service. It’s closer to driving a bus than it is to shredding a guitar solo.

“When you talk crap about a rival, you’re reinforcing a sense of identity. You’re reinforcing who we are and who they are.” 

We hear perfectionism described a hundred different ways. Rarely do we hear it described as dangerous.

The nature of being on call is that while there isn’t necessarily work to be done all day long, there are constant interruptions when I try to do other work for extended periods of time.

To own a business that generates you many millions of dollars, you have to become a certain type of person. Is that worth it?

Listening is one of those things in which, if you feel you’re good at it, you probably aren’t.

Cheap doesn’t usually deliver on time, respond quickly, or have great ideas. Expensive does those things. 

“If your sense of taste is lower than that of the customers how will you impress them?”

“Reading is supposed to be an educational tool, and most people use it like sleeping pills.”

Of course there are days that are not enjoyable. Of course life presents hardship. Unavoidable, painful hardship. But who is the gatekeeper of your own enjoyment?

For a laugh (and some condolence) Google search “actors in commercials before they were famous.” My query just brought up a young Brad Pitt chomping Pringles on the beach.

“I suffer as always from the fear of putting down the first line. It is amazing the terrors, the magics, the prayers, the straightening shyness that assails one...”

If a client doesn’t know who you are, you have to do a lot of selling to win their business. There’s a better way.

Living in Los Angeles has thousands of perks. It also has a few downsides. One of those downsides showed up on my apartment building’s driveway the other day, in the from of urine in a water bottle.