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November 10, 2012

Just Keep Working

8 Comments

[Sent out ear­lier in the gaping­void news­let­ter etc:]

Picasso, the grea­test pain­ter of the twen­tieth cen­tury, didn’t sit around on his rear end all day, wai­ting for the muse to arrive.

Nope, he just got to his his stu­dio every mor­ning, and cran­ked it out, stop­ping only to eat and maybe the occa­sio­nal roll in the hay with his many women… And he did this for deca­des. He was a machine!

Sure, there are some suc­cess­ful artists who pre­fer the sit-on-rear-end method, but how many of them are bet­ter than Picasso? Exactly.

Tags: Picasso, Work Ethics

8 Responses to “Just Keep Working”

1. Kenneth Vogt says:

   November 11, 2012 at 8:14 PM

   I have thought of myself in the past (and others pro­bably have too) as a per­fec­tio­nist. But one day I rea­li­zed that a close friend of mine made my per­fec­tio­nism look ama­teur. The dif­fe­rence? I am Picasso-active and she is afraid to start anything. The rea­li­za­tion came that she didn’t start because she never starts until she can do it per­fectly. That is a day that often never comes because “per­fect” is an illu­sion. Picasso didn’t start pain­ting when he had it all figu­red out. He star­ted pain­ting as the means of figu­ring it out. Keep wor­king by killing that per­fec­tio­nism! http://www.veraclaritas.com/perfectionism-is-setting-the-bar-too-low/

   Reply
2. Akilesh says:

   November 11, 2012 at 10:33 PM

   Of course, Eins­tein said that he would sit in silence and wait for ideas to des­cend like but­ter­flies and land on his shoul­der, or something like that. And Stra­vinsky simi­larly com­men­ted he would wait “like an insect waits” for new ideas.

   Maybe dif­fe­rent tem­pe­ra­ments use dif­fe­rent means to achieve the same ends. As Ber­trand Rus­sell said, “Ani­mals stu­died by Ame­ri­cans rush about fran­ti­cally, with an inc­re­di­ble dis­play of hustle and pep, and at last achieve the desi­red result by chance. Ani­mals obser­ved by Ger­mans sit still and think, and at last evolve the solu­tion out of their inner consciousness.”

   PS — nice blog. Keep up the good work.

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3. Derek says:

   November 13, 2012 at 1:25 AM

   I enjoy and agree with about 90% of Hugh’s car­toons and mes­sa­ges. But this one…

   I 100% LOVE! I orde­red my fra­med print in 30 seconds after I read my “daily car­toon” email.

   Per­fec­tion is pro­gress and money’s worst enemy. I’ve known that logi­cally for 10 years but I still find myself wai­ting for the muse to get me ins­pi­red and going. Okay, so kno­wing something logi­cally, inte­llec­tually and not being able to act and change beha­viors to align to those logi­cal beliefs is not an uncom­mon issue…so I don’t beat myself up too bad.

   I know exactly when the muse shows up for me…just as pre­di­ca­ble as the sun rising and my Scot­tish Terrier “McLa­ren” scratching at the door to empty her blad­der 10.2 minu­tes after she has her after din­ner drink. Being a Scot­tish native you’d think her after din­ner drink would be much stronge than water, right? I digress…

   For me, the muse and all the power that comes with it arive as soon as I get my ass to work and lose myself in my pro­ject men­tally and work from my heart. Every sin­gle time. Really.

   So when I saw this, I had to have it. Maybe having this on my office wall will save me count­less hours of wai­ting for something magi­cal to hap­pen when I know what the ans­wer is.

   I’ve had Hugh create a Cube Gre­nade for me and I have a BIG “Ignore Every­body” limi­ted edi­tion print. The cube gre­nade is ama­zing. It works bet­ter than advertised…way bet­ter. And the Ignore Every­body print keeps me ins­pi­red and on accu­rate thought every mor­ning when I walk past it to my desk. Having said that, I’m thin­king this print will be the most valua­ble to me from a real dollars and cents return on invest­ment due to what I said above.

   Any­way, sorry for the rant, I just hope every­body who sees this print knows the power of the mes­sage within. Very, very power­ful. Peace, Derek Naylor

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4. Welcome to 500, Thank You for Coming | Marina Rose Martinez says:

   November 13, 2012 at 5:57 AM

   […] […]

   Reply
5. Reid says:

   November 13, 2012 at 2:27 PM

   Hugh,

   You struck again. “Put that cof­fee down.” I was sip­ping some deli­cious cara­mel cof­fee when the daily comic came. I almost obli­ged . But, I couldn’t fla­vor was there.

   Please tell Jason– I re-read the begin­ning of his mani­festo that was pos­ted. His thoughts are stunners…they put the brain into quick action and me back to work.

   Have a great week,

   Reid

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6. Magento extensions says:

   November 16, 2012 at 1:57 AM

   Pablo Picasso, was a Spa­nish pain­ter, sculp­tor, print­ma­ker, cera­mi­cist, and stage desig­ner who spent most of his adult life in France. In reply to your ques­tions, none is bet­ter than Picasso

   Reply
7. Long Beach PC Technician says:

   November 19, 2012 at 10:42 PM

   Great illus­tra­tion. Great enough to ins­pire me the whole day. Yes, I agree. You have to work and quit wai­ting! How do you keep on wor­king when you are not in the mood though?

   Reply
8. Anton says:

   November 27, 2012 at 4:45 AM

   There no bet­ter ins­pi­ra­tion for every­day, because if you will not work hard you will not achieve anything… And the new day must be like a small sti­mu­lus for making your­self and out­ward things better.

   Reply