Resources for the Disciplined Creative
The published writer scolds the erratic painter, “you should be more disciplined about your painting. You hardly finish any work, and move on to the next one. And you don’t even publish your art, how can you even call yourself an artist?”
This is the conversation I have with myself. I was a published writer (articles, books and a song!), but my “painting” was no where to be found. Yet I would doodle more than I’d write.
This section is a collection of resources that helped me, and now help countless other creators, on how to:
– find more discipline for their creations
– build a brand online, so their art gets “published” and is taken to the market!
I have almost 300 videos on YouTube around these two subjects. And countless articles. That’s a lot of content. So I have tried to put the guides, the tools, the workshops, the articles together on this page. Hope this helps, yes?
Most articles are in English, most videos are in Urdu.
These are hand-picked, proven, field-tested material that has been shown to work! I wish you all the best! Do join our community if you want regular updates when such content is added!
Productivity for Artists (Creatives, Creators)
How to structure your self to produce more of what you want to produce!
Job, Career or a Calling
There are three ways to look at our work. Either we think it's a job, it's a career, or we think it is our calling. And at least one of these categories is very, very bad for us (no prizes for guessing which one though). +++ There was a study done by Dr Amy...
The Job and The Struggle
Recently we talked about identifying our job. We also saw how we can ritualize the work: show up everyday for our job. My job is to write. To design. To solve problems. Not necessarily in that order. I do it every day. I must. That's my decision. I have also outlined...
Simple, Not Easy
I recently had a discussion with Yasir Nisar over a cup of warm tea and hot samosas. Yes, tea and samosa. Yasir is a professional photographer here in Pakistan. His pictures can sell upwards of 50,000 rupees each. Each. His calendar for the next few months, by his own...
A Word of Advice on Words of Advice
A lot of people share and keep sharing Steve Job's Commencement Speech at Stanford. The official video released by Stanford 6 years ago, has so far garnered 18 millions views. It's a great speech. If you haven't watched it, you must. A lot of people share that video...
The Collector of Good
I had just arrived in Islamabad via Daewoo, and the old friend who came to pick me up was having car trouble. The car's headlights were just not functioning, and it was getting dark. We assumed the problem to be the simplest: a fuse had shorted and a simple...
Acknowledgments and Your Invisible Team
I am re-re-re-reading The Lean Startup as I am preparing a workshop on business growth. I noticed the Acknowledgments section which I had of course seen before, but haven't read read it. Then I took out my pen and listed the people Eric Ries acknowledges. About 5...
Building a Brand and a Business for Artists (Creatives, Creators)
Discover the fundamentals of brand building, how to go about creating your community of “1000 true fans” and building a meaningful, high-impact online business for yourself.
Earning Money Online
I get an email from a subscriber, and as a passing reference, she mentions that she found my blog though a reference on Saad Hamid's blog. Saad Hamid mentioned me on his blog!? I had to check it out myself...I found this: Saad mentions me on his blog, and I get to...
New Year’s Video Message
I recorded a quick video message for the New Year. Do you make new year's resolutions? Then you will find the following video very helpful: Now... The dangling question is, "how can you achieve those goals?" Making new year's resolutions doesn't work because we think...
Disruptive Wonder
Kelli Anderson is an artist. She gave this TEDx talk and right at the beginning, she tells the audience what is the purpose of her work: People arrive at experiences with expectations. And when we make things we are actively choosing what to do with those...
The Samurai Editor
Josh Seiden says about editing one's writing, and I quote verbatim (is there any other way?): when you are editing, you are a deadly samurai warrior. You slash writing to bits until only the good and pure and worthy words are left. But when you are writing, you are...
Steve Job’s Best Advice
Steve Jobs captures the essence of how to bring about massive change in your life. http://var/web/site/public_html.youtube.com/watch?v=UvEiSa6_EPA In the above clip, Steve says: When you grow up you tend to get told the world is the way it is and you're life is...
The Habits of Highly Boring and Mediocre People
The path to a risk-free, boring, mediocre life in these easy steps: Always have something to complain about. Look for faults in others. In fact, consider “fault finding” a part of your job! Accept whatever you are told without asking for “verifiable” sources. Tell...