Like many others, I also do not like too much self-promotion.
This book gives advice and inspiration on why and how to tell our story without feeling embarrassed.
Chapter 1: "You Don't Have to Be a Genius"
In the current world, anyone can share because everyone has something worth sharing.
Share your work, because the process of sharing helps you get better.
Everybody starts as an amateur, and it is more important to start as an amateur, rather than wait till you become a genius.
Chapter 2: "Think Process, Not Product"
Share the process of how you make things.
Show how you got to where you are.
Share your failures and what you learned from them.
Share the backend that no one knows but would still be interesting for others to know
Chapter 3: "Share something small everyday"
Rather than waiting a long time till something sizeable is there, share something every day.
One day is a small enough cycle to be focused on, large enough cycle to get something credible. It also has a natural rhythm (sun will always rise and set to mark the start and end of your cycle)
When sharing, try to answer the question "What are you working on?"
Don't worry if what you share is perfect, it doesn't matter that much.
There is enough time if you look for it.
Although it sounds simple, being consistent and disciplined to show up every day is the most difficult thing.
Don't share everything. Share things that could be useful for others … show your work, not your coffee, your dog, or whatever.
Share things only which you will be ok if your boss sees or the newspaper publishes.
If you are unsure about sharing something, just capture it and keep it as a draft. Revisit it later when you feel the time is right for it.
Build a good name on internet. Choose good work over more money / being successful. Your good name will become its own currency one day.
Chapter 4: "Open Up Your Cabinet of Curiosities"
Keep an ongoing collection of things that inspire you, such as quotes, images, and found objects.
Share these things with others. All your influences are worth sharing because they tell others who you are and what you do. Sometimes sharing this makes even more sense than your own work.
Own your pleasures and be honest about them. You will find people who love what you love without feeling guilty.
Give credit to others who provided you the inspiration or the material you are sharing.
Chapter 5: "Tell Good Stories"
Everything has a value in a certain context and meaningful stories make that context. Ex. a shoe is worth €100 and the same shoe if told as appreciated by Messi can be worth 1000s of €.
Be a good story-teller and practice this skill
Everything we share, every post, every picture, every video, every interaction is a story that you are telling to the world, try to improve this story again and again.
Dan Harmon's story circle or Joseph Campbell's "The Hero's journey"
Ordinary Journey -> call to change -> refusal of call -> support and more evidence to start the change -> the final threshold crossed and the change journey starts -> tests / problems faced -> the final battle -> pain / grief and final victory -> The journey back to the normal -> new learnings, power, lessons, changes -> starts new journey
Talk about yourself at parties but without any adjectives belittling or overdoing it. Don't get cute, don't brag. Just state the facts
Chapter 6: "Teach What You Know"
Share your expertise and knowledge with others.
You don't have to be an expert to start teaching. As soon as you learn something, teach it to the next person who is interested.
Teaching is a way to solidify your own knowledge and understanding. It also acts as a way to generate more interest of others in your work. People feel closer to your work because you are sharing what you know with them.
When you share, people give you more insights into things you should know or should have known already. It is a life-long teaching spiral.
Chapter 7: "Don't turn into human spam"
If you want people to follow you, become someone worth following
If you want to be interesting, you need to be interested in things
True connections are not formed through just networking. They are formed when meaningful discussion take place on things that are relevant for all parties.
Make stuff you love and talk about stuff you love and you will attract people who love that kind of stuff
The vampire test: If after hanging out with someone, you feel worn out and depleted, this person is a vampire for you . This test can also be applied to jobs, hobbies, places, tasks etc.
If you find vampire, just don't indulge. Ignore it and move on.
Meeting people online is awesome but turning them into In Real Life (IRL) friends is even better
Chapter 8: "Learn to take a punch"
Learn how to deal with trolling and ignoring it whenever needed.
Focus your energy on positive things. If people criticize, learn but don't worry about criticism. It is impossible to satisfy everyone, some people will always be offended.
Chapter 9: "Sell out"
Everybody needs money to get food, flat and clothes etc. so it is fine to create your work for money. All great people have done that.
Don't be afraid to charge for your work, but ask a price which is fair
Be ambitious, keep yourself busy, try things, take opportunities.
If more money and more interesting work is coming, say yes, if more money but more boring work (which you don't like doing) is coming, say no.
Pay it forward. Try to help others the way some others helped you.
You should be generous enough to help but selfish enough to first get your own work done. Always pay yourself first and then help or be generous to others.
Chapter 10: "Stick Around"
Building a following takes time and consistency. Keep showing up and sharing your work.
The people who get what they are after are very often the ones who just stick around long enough. It is very important to not quit prematurely
Instead of taking a break in between projects, use the end of one project to start the next one like a chain smoker.
Every project will give you learnings and use these learnings to start and improve the next project.
If you stop, think too much, analyze or relax too much, momentum will be lost.
You should still take good pauses to reflect and become better, but go away with the intention to come back again.
Rather than waiting for months and years to take pauses, use small pauses every week, every month or every days to reflect and improve … exercising, routine travel time (in train, car or whatever), or going into nature without electronics can help you momentarily disconnect and process things. Afterwards when you come back, you might already be ready to go at it once again.
Once you feel, you have learned what was there to learn, be ready to change course and find something new to learn so that you can keep growing. You need to keep being a student again and again to keep growing.
If you aren't embarrassed of who you were last year, you are probably not growing and learning enough.
Some extra points:
Authenticity is key in building a following and finding success
Don't try to be someone you're not.
Embrace your quirks and individuality
Your network is your net worth
Connect with others and help them
Collaborate with others and share the spotlight
The main message:
Embrace the process of creation, share your work and ideas with others, and engage with your audience in order to build a following, network, and find new opportunities.
Become an amateur again and again -> look for new things to learn -> dedicate yourself to learning it -> document the progress and share the journey with others so that they can learn with you -> show your work to others -> when right people come, collaborate with them to find new opportunities
