The Book That Changed My Life "Show Your Work" _ by Austin Kleon (Summary, Key Ideas & Highlights)
Summary, key ideas & Highlights
🤷♀️ What is it about?
This book is about the power of sharing your work with the world and getting findable about using the network instead of wasting time. It talks about how and why you should get yourself out there and let the others see your creative work.
Kleon, the author of the book, lays out 10 ways to think about your work as a never-ending process, how to build an audience by sharing that process, and most importantly how to deal with the ups and downs of putting yourself and your work out there.
👥 Who is this book for?
This book is recommended for literally everyone in the world whether you are a content creator, an artist, a painter, a writer, a musician, or an entrepreneur, this book will definitely be beneficial to you.
This book is not just for “creatives” It’s absolutely for everyone even if you’re not into the creativity-entrepreneurship thing. If you are a regular teacher, a student like me, a professional, or even an amateur, you should still read it because I assure you that this book will open up huge pathways and possibilities that you never knew existed; All you have to do is to show your work.
🔑The 10 key ideas:
You don't have to be a genius
Think about the process, not the product
Share something small every day
Open up your cabinet of curiosities
Learn to tell good stories
Teach what you know
Don't turn into human spam
Learn to take a punch
Sell out
Stick around
📚 Summary & Notes
You don't have to be a genius
This is the number one thing you need to understand before you get started. You do not have to do extensive research, you don't have to be an expert. All you need to do is just to share what you already know. Share your prosses, your successes, your journey, and even your failures because there are tons of people out there who want to be on the same path as you.
We need to move away from the genius myth of creativity. “Scenius” is a better way to think about creativity where anyone can contribute.
Therefore, there is nothing wrong with being an amateur because amateurs have more to teach than experts and they are better to understand the beginner’s mind that the experts might have forgotten.
Think about the process, not the product
You need to document your process and share it with the world along the way using the abundance of the internet. If you are, for example, a writer, you might share a couple of passages on Twitter, an illustration on Instagram, or even a teaser video on Youtube. This is how you can keep people engaged, So ideally you don't need to have a finished product to start sharing it with the world.
Taking people behind the scenes with you sharing what you are currently on, the status of your project, or the resources you are using, might be indeed the best thing to do. Thus, you need to become a documentarian of what you do.
Share something small every day
Always share stuff that might be helpful or interesting to someone on the other side of the screen. What you do and share can have a tremendous impact on a person that might even be on the other side of the planet, even if you think that what you are sharing has already been said or is not entertaining, just remember that what might be common or obvious for you might be mind-blowing to others as every single one of us is in a different state on our lives journey.
Give what you have to someone, it may be better than you dare to think. - Henry Wadswoth.
Open up your cabinet of curiosities
Share other people's work and don't forget to credit them.
Everyone likes different things, and sharing all of these different things with the world while also crediting and labeling what you are sharing will come back in your favor.
Learn to tell good stories
Sharing your work with the world will be so much more effective when you master the art of telling good stories. Kleon shares with us in his book a cycle for achieving the goal:
Teach what you know
Teaching people does not detract from what you do, it adds to it.
People will feel closer to it because you’re teaching them what you know and that is how you will be building interconnected feedback loops that will catapult both you and the audience forward. A game-changer.
The minute you learn something, turn around and teach it to others. Share your reading list. Point to helpful reference materials. Create some tutorials and post them online. Use pictures, words, and video. Take people step-by-step through part of your process. As blogger Kathy Sierra says, “make people better at something they want to be better at”
Don't turn into human spam
We have to be part of a community where we can share our ideas, interact and exchange thoughts, and give feedback instead of simply pushing and pointing people to our work all the time.
You should also consider behaving like a human and not like a product and creating that deep connection with people because this organic approach will most likely lead you to create a real connection with the person and someday meet him in real life and turn him into IRL friends.
If you want fans, you have to be a fan first. If you want to be accepted by a community, you have to first be a good citizen of that community. If you’re only pointing to your own stuff online, you’re doing it wrong. You have to be a connector. The writer Blake Butler calls this being an open node. If you want to get, you have to give. If you want to be noticed, you have to notice. Shut up and listen once in a while. Be thoughtful. Be considerate. Don’t turn into human spam. Be an open node.
Learn to take a punch
You will have to learn to take the criticisms, absorb them and ultimately let them fuel you. Always keep in mind that you cannot make everyone on the planet agree with you. Instead of caring so much about the criticism and the hate comments, you need to focus on the positive energies and vibes you're getting from people who do care about you.
Learn to see the difference between constructive and destructive criticism. Appreciate the constructive, ignore the destructive. - John Douglas
Sell out
There is nothing wrong with money. Getting paid for things doesn't get in the way of your creativity.
Stick around
Keep doing your work, keep sharing consistency online. Change often comes from the compound effect of daily work that will in the long run change how we view and interact with the world, so don't quit.
🙌 How this book changed my life
This book has been pivotal in my life because for a long time I'd been toying with the idea of setting up a personal blog documenting my journey and the things I learn along the way, but I have never been able to get over the fear of self-promotion and the illusion that “people would judge me”. Not until I came across this book in July 2021 and it was there my digital-creation journey started. A huge shout-out to the legend YouTuber Ali Abdaal for continually recommending this book on his Youtube channel.
This book made me generally more comfortable with putting myself out there. It made me start documenting my process on Instagram, Twitter, and other social media platforms. In fact, the reason why I started this blog or newsletter was because of reading and understanding the message of this book.
I did not find a better way to start this personal blog than to actually talk about this book.
and that was the first step to creating my newsletter, which is the one you’re reading this article from right now, and I assume as I am writing my first article that this newsletter will change my life.
I encourage you all to read this book and hope it will change your life as it did to me.
My picks of the week 🙌
🎧Podcast: The 1 Habit All Highly Effective People Live By & How To Implement It In Your Life by Jay Shetty
📺Videos: 10 personal finance lessons that changed my life by Matt D’Avella
📚Book: The 4-Hour Work Week By Tim Ferriss
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It helps a lot!! Thanks!
Amazing 👏 😯