I’m currently reading The Practice: Shipping Creative Work by Seth Godin.
After the first fifteen or so chapters, I decided the wrong way to read it is to wait until I finished it to establish a daily practice of shipping creative work.
What is “The Practice” that he refers to?
I am interpreting it as a process we can pursue every day to create change through shipping creative work, whether it be music, writing, a tech product prototype, or anything else. He describes the creative work as art, as a generosity that seeks to serve others in the pursuit of making things better.
I actually considered publishing writing daily before, about a year ago actually. I started a writing habit and maintained it for about 90 days before abandoning it.
About a week ago, I decided that instead of abandoning that daily publishing habit, I actually just paused it, and that I would now resume the habit of publishing daily.
The Practice — My Practice Thus Far
Thus far, I’ve published 8 posts, each of which I’ve forwarded to a student of mine right after I publish it.
I forward my published writing to him regardless of how good or bad I think it is because I see an enormous talent in him in writing and creative work, but he struggles to show up and do the work, to pursue the daily practice of doing something that might not work. (He doesn’t know this, but I care about what he thinks of my writing. However, I decided to not let his potential judgment stop me from being a victim of fear).
I do this because I see myself in him, and I decided that at the very least I didn’t want to serve as an example of cowardice. I don’t want to be someone who lets fear and not wanting to do something if I can’t do it well stand in between me and my growth and achievement.
A Result of Shipping Creative Work Daily (After Only 8 Days)
One of those 8 pieces of writing is titled “How to Land Internships and Research Positions as a High School Student”. It mainly argues “positions that don’t take high school students” will actually take high school students if you can eliminate their biggest concerns and reasons against hiring one.
Because it’s not really about not wanting to hire a high school student.
It’s about not wanting to hire someone who will require training they don’t have time for.
It’s about not wanting the additional part-time job of babysitting on top of the full-time job they already have.
It’s about not wanting to have to constantly follow someone around with a plastic bag.
So the way you land “positions that don’t take high school students” is by proving you are someone who is self-aware, reliable, and responsible. That you are someone who can communicate clearly and thus won’t require the additional work to decipher what you’re saying or what’s going on in your head.
You can land “positions that don’t take high school students” by creating a pitch proposal that demonstrates you are someone who thinks ahead and can propose solutions to problems you know they have, all without needing to be told they have those problems in the first place. How? Because you researched who they are and what they do, and not only do you understand their pain points, you care about the impact they’re making and you want to contribute.
And now, because you proactively proposed solutions you weren’t even asked to provide, you are also someone who doesn’t need to be asked to provide help. Instead, you just offer it upfront, no request necessary.
And even better?
Your ideas not only make sense, they’re good. They’re perceptive, realistic, and quickly achievable. In fact, you’ve even provided sample work and case studies of how you’ve succeeded elsewhere by applying your ideas. Your ideas are the solutions they didn’t know they’ve been waiting for.
And you? You’re the person they’ve been hoping for to help execute them.
“Here, I made this.”
I wrote that post with those ideas, which were inspired and influenced by Isaac Morehouse who co-founded Praxis and Crash.co, two companies that teach the skill of creating pitches to help stand out in a job hunt. Because job hunts aren’t a qualifications problem. They’re a marketing problem.
After offering my email in exchange for some guides from Crash.co, I received an email from Joel Bein who is works as the “Content Strategist, CX, and Partnerships” at Crash.co, asking:
1. how did you find Crash?
2. why did you sign up?
3. what would be your dream job right now that we could help you get??
To reply to question number two, I linked to that same article I wrote just a few days ago, “How to Land Internships and Research Positions as a High School Student”. And when I did linked it, I realized Seth Godin is right.
He recommends blogging daily even if nobody reads it.
Because once you’ve published what you wrote, you get to say, “Here, I made this.” And “this” is a perspective you have, an idea you believe in. “This” is guidance you’ve already given, and explanation you already articulated.
Blogging daily, he recommends, helps you clarify your thinking. And if you post it in public, other people can discover it. And when people discover it, you might just change the way they see the world.
And what happens when other people start applying this newfound perspective you’ve given them?
You’re one step closer to creating the change you seek to make.
