wisdom Archives - Marketing Your Art the Right Way

“Even when you have doubts, take that step. Take chances. Mistakes are never a failure—they can be turned into wisdom.” ― Cat Cora

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In school, I was always scared of getting an answer wrong. Red marks across a test or paper would make me cringe. What did I do wrong? I studied so hard. I wanted my grades to be perfect, but perfection was often unattainable.

I’m sure you’ve felt that same fear and embarrassment too. We have been conditioned to always strive for perfection, even if it is unattainable.

Our schools punish kids for their failures, but is that the best way to teach our future generations? They condition us to find the one right answer, but there is rarely ever one solution to a problem.

Those lessons often translate to our lives outside of school. Most companies are searching for people who can come up with innovative solutions.

On the other hand, we expect companies to tell us exactly what to do. We have been conditioned not to take chances. We look at mistakes and believe there is no recovering from them.

If there’s anything I’ve learned from studying creative people, it’s that they are unafraid to take chances. They leap into challenges head first. They treat failures as a chance to learn instead of as an indictment or themselves and their work.

Everyone makes mistakes, but not everyone learns from them. Click To Tweet

When they fail, they look at that experience and ask themselves “What could I have done better?” That’s exactly what we all need to do. Stop getting down on yourself for making a mistake. Everyone makes mistakes, but not everyone learns from them.

Don't worry about making a mistake. Mistakes are the foundation of learning. Click To Tweet

We need to be more bold in our thoughts and our actions. So go out there and take chances. Don’t worry about making a mistake. Mistakes are the foundation of learning.

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“The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.” – Socrates

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I’ll admit it. I don’t know all the answers. Anyone who tells you they know all the answers is lying.

As someone who is trying to help artists market themselves and their work, you might assume I know every aspect about marketing. I can tell you this right now, I don’t. If you are looking for a guru who can give you all the answers, you will be looking for a very long time.

We all look to the experts to figure things out for us. We want to do as little work as possible. This is your wake up call. If you want to find success, you must first acknowledge you don’t know everything. Next, you must admit that you will never know everything.

Some people may find this idea a burden. They want to take shortcuts. They want to know it all and they want to know it now.

I, on the other hand, think this idea is liberating. Sometimes the biggest burdens are the burdens of knowledge. When you know all the answers, you are less willing to take risks. You are less willing to break from convention. You believe your way is the right way, even if better alternatives exist.

Not knowing all the answers can lead to spectacular results. Here are some reasons you should admit to not knowing:

People will respect you more

When you are honest with others, they respect you more. It is better to tell people when you don’t know something than to make it up.

Don’t try to make yourself looks smarter by making it up. If people find out you were being dishonest, they will resent and lose respect for you.

When someone asks you a question, that you don’t know the answer to, simply tell them you don’t know, but you would like to find out. It will make you look better in the long run.

You can learn from others

We only have a finite amount of time on Earth, which means we can never know everything. Instead of trying to learn everything ourselves, we should lean on the knowledge of others.

No matter how much we think we know, there is always something we can learn from other people. Don’t close yourself off to the knowledge others can give you.

One of the best ways to do this is through Masterminds. Napoleon Hill found that the most successful people in his lifetime made use of a Mastermind. People from Andrew Carnegie to Henry Ford made use of this extraordinary tool.

Instead of trying to figure everything out on their own, these men relied on the wisdom of others. This allowed them to grow some of the largest, most successful businesses of their times.

By opening themselves up to the knowledge of others, they were able to solve problems they couldn’t figure out on their own.

It allows you to experiment

Every great discovery and invention started with a question. It was the result of someone not knowing something.

Just look at the scientific method as proof. Everything we know about science is based off of a question. Before we can claim something is true, we must first experiment and review the results.

If we were didn’t test our hypotheses, people would still believe the world is flat. We would still think the universe revolves around the Earth. We would still be experimenting with alchemy.

Through experimentation, we have made many new discoveries and debunked old theories. This is only possible by admitting we don’t know everything.

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