“You are only going to be as good as the stuff you surround yourself with”. So surround yourself with good ideas. Choose to be influenced by the best.
Steal Like An Artist — How to become better in your craft
Using your heroes’ work as a springboard to becoming more creative
As Picasso said, “Good artists copy. Great artists steal.” How can we become more creative? How can we improve our skills and become better? For that, we must “stand on the shoulders of giants” as Isaac Newton said. We must use the past, the wit, experiences, and skills of others to our advantage. Time is precious and life is short. We must be smart.
Bismarck said, “Fools say that they can learn by experience. I prefer to profit by others’ experience.” Shakespeare took whole dialogues from Plutarch. Most politicians do not write their own speeches. Thomas Edison exploited Nikola Tesla’s genius, taking credit for Tesla’s inventions.
The bottom line:
You must learn to steal from others’ work.
That is not to say copy, deface, nor alter slightly the work of others. No. It means this: do not be afraid to take the work of others and incorporate it into your own, improving it. Is not all scientific progress not based on the foundations of the work of others? If you are to progress you cannot do everything from your own experience. You must stand “on the shoulders of giants”, as Isaac Newton wrote to Robert Hooke in 1675. You must use the armies of the past. As Robert Greene wrote in ‘The 48 Laws of Power’, “Their wit can be your wit, their skill your skill.”
Some of the most motivated and creative times of my life have occurred after taking and improving the good ideas and plans of others, not when I have tried to do it all myself. Going to Italy and meeting a blogger and thinking, “That’s a good idea! I think I will try that”. Likewise, when fundraising nearly £2,000 for the first time in my life, I had no idea what to do. I took my challenge leader’s previously used idea to collect books from the local community and sell them. Learn to steal good ideas.
Their wit can be your wit, their skill your skill — Robert Greene
How to apply this in your life
You must learn to look at the world constantly asking yourself: “Is this worth stealing?” Nothing is completely original but built upon the work of others. So learn from everyone you meet. Take the best from everything you see, hear, touch. When we ask ourselves this, we relieve ourselves of the burden of trying to do everything ourselves.
- You must collect good ideas. Be selective. The more you collect, the more you can be influenced and thus create good work.
- Keep a notebook.
- Learn about people who inspire you and then move onto people that inspired them.
- Do not steal the style of the artist, person, athlete, etc., steal the thinking behind the style.
- Don’t make work because you have something to say. Make work because you want to find something to say.
Conclusion and absolute bottom line
If you are to remember anything from this post it is this: make work every day. Whether it is a sentence of a story, painting, practising your serve and analysing technique videos, keep creating, developing, working. You will suck at first but as you steal more good ideas, you will improve. After all, “a man is worked upon by what he works on” as Frederick Douglass said. Remember, it is in the act of doing, of making, of acting, that we find ourselves. So do not wait until you know who you are to act.
Remember, it is in the act of doing, of making, of acting, that we find ourselves. So do not wait until you know who you are to act.
