Creative Wayfinding For Ambitious Optimists.

Pay Your Respects

January, 24, 2020

Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash

I get it, there’s a lot of competition out there.

Whatever you’re doing, there are almost certainly others doing it better.

Maybe even dozens, hundreds, or thousands of others!

Let’s not even talk about the others who are at the same level as you that you’re battling against to reach that next level first.

With all that competition it’s easy to feel the need to horde any attention you do get. To constantly scramble to keep the focus of those whose attention you already have while trying to siphon off ever more attention from your competition.

But this is not the way to get to that next level.

Lead With Generosity

The way to the next level is by being generous in creating and putting our work out into the world.

But we also need to be generous in promoting the work of others whose work fills the gaps in ours.

If we believe in the work we’re doing, others doing similar work are not competition, but allies in our quest to realize our vision for the world and move the culture forward.

If we can become the go-to source for one super-specific topic, that’s enough.

If we can become known for doing one thing better than anyone else, we don’t need to scramble to catch and hold the attention of everyone.

The people our work is for will gravitate to and engage with us naturally.

Those who our work is not for will probably leave, but that’s fine. It was never for them anyway.

Let them go.

Point them to others who can serve them better than you can. Sometimes the greatest gift you can give is to be a generous resource.

And the universe has a funny way of returning the generosity you put into it.

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Hi, I'm Jeremy, I'm glad you're here.

No matter what you create, I'm guessing you spend a good amount of time feeling lost, hopeless, and unsure about how to get from where you are to where you want to be.

So do I. And so does everyone doing creative work.

This is the Creative Wilderness.

Every week, I publish a new article in my Creative Wayfinding newsletter about how we as creators and marketers can navigate it with more clarity and confidence.

If you're building something that matters, but aren't quite sure how to take the next step forward, I'd be honoured to have you join us.