SEAN WARD’S MONDAY MEDITATION

I once knew this young artist who wouldn’t put her best drawings on the internet because she was afraid that people would repost them without crediting her.  She wasn’t a famous artist, she was an unknown who needed exposure.

SHARING IS HAVING MORE

I remember thinking that there are no circumstances when it would be better to not have those drawings out there at all than to have them out there without her name on them. Eventually the people who like them the best are going to see more of her work and recognize her style, or they’re going to see the same image somewhere else with full credit attached. Either way, I believe that it would be better to have those drawings out there – with a credit where you have control over it and without where you don’t – bringing attention to your style one way or the other.

Then I realized that I was doing the same thing in some of my earliest comic books.  I was deliberately being vague and trying to be weird.  At the time I thought I was inspired by Donnie Darko or Lost Highway in creating a work that raises more questions than it answers. But later I saw that I was creatively treading water, saving my best ideas for when I had a larger audience

The more of those ideas I laid out there, the more people took an interest in what I was doing.

YOU HAVE ALL YOU NEED RIGHT NOW

Have you got big ideas swimming around in your head that you’re saving for when you have more time, more money, more fans, more courage?

Holding those ideas back is going to keep you stuck in one spot.  They’ll slowly lose that vital, immediate quality that made them special.  When you act quickly, you not only get your ideas out there while they sparkle with new life.  You get them out there building momentum for you.  As your ideas that are out there build on each other, your momentum compounds like money.

Don’t wait for the right time.  The time will never be right.  Just get your momentum building today.

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