10 Best Ideas | STEAL LIKE AN ARTIST | Austin Kleon | Book Summary

About this video

Clark reviews Austin Kleon’s ‘Steal Like an Artist: 10 Things No One Told You About Being Creative,’ defining a modern artist as anyone doing creative work, including business, music, video, design, and writing. The ten points he distills are: 1) nothing is original, so embrace influence instead of seeking perfection; 2) everything is a remix, illustrated as 1+1=3, with creators averaging their top five influences, his own including Brian Johnson and Tony Robbins, and Dr. Dre’s sampling as an example; 3) don’t wait, start before you’re ready, because identity is found through creating, as with bands like Bring Me The Horizon; 4) expect imposter syndrome and let vulnerability draw people in; 5) steal don’t plagiarize, taking work apart like a mechanic to learn how it works rather than passing it off as your own, quoting Wilson Mizner that copying from many is research; 6) go deeper and copy the thinking behind the style, citing Conan O’Brien and Kobe Bryant; 7) write the book you want to read and scratch your own itch, as he did with his hair brand Kegley and Co; 8) expect the lifespan of a project from ‘best idea ever’ through ’this sucks’ to finishing, and become a finisher; 9) use analog tools and handwriting to retain ideas; and 10) simplify, citing Dr. Seuss writing with 50 words and Apple’s one-button iPhone aim, noting editing is mostly taking away.

Key takeaways

• Nothing is original and everything is a remix, so embrace influence and identify the top influences you are remixing from
• Start before you are ready; you find who you are through the process of creating, not before it
• Steal like a mechanic by taking work apart to learn how it works, but do not plagiarize by passing it off as your own
• Copy the thinking behind a style, not just the surface, and create what you wish existed by scratching your own itch
• Push through the lifespan of a project to become a finisher, write by hand to retain ideas, and simplify by taking things away

Episode details: published August 22, 2016 · 23:01 long. Summary written by Self Growth Videos from the episode itself. Business results and any income figures mentioned are Clark Kegley’s own claims, shared for education — they are not typical or guaranteed.

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