Beyond the $69 million JPEG

This is not about NFTs, or if they are in a bubble. It is not about if digital art is worth so much. Or that NFTs are totally not environmentally friendly. On all counts, many think yes, many think no. It's a matter of what you believe and your perspective.

We have all seen the image of the now famous NFT (in banner). And then I came across this piece call the ???????????????? ?????????????? (below) on Easter Sunday. Slowly Beeple's digital art worked on me and piqued my curiosity. I went deeper into the rabbit hole (pun intended) and found what fascinates me more than the art is the man behind, ????????????????????.

I have to stumble upon this on Easter Sunday... Cadbunny Warfare - Beeple

I didn't know about him before his work was auctioned off at $69 million. But it seems he was already a well known and successful digital artist even before the sale. But it will be this sale that will put him in history!

If you haven't seen the piece Everydays: The First 5000 Days closer, got to this Christies page here, it allows you to zoom in. I actually like the piece.

I noticed several traits present in similar simple people like himself who made it big! Here are three attributes that I found interesting.

C?R?E?A?T?I?N?G? ?W?O?R?K?

Creative people don’t come up with brilliant ideas all the time. There are probably tens and hundreds of duds behind that one good idea. We just don’t see the bad ones. And who is to say they are bad anyway? In the case of art, if you like it, its good art. If not, it’s still work.

Beeple started with some not so great works, some he calls 'crap' (see his first piece below). He pressed on creating, building elements from scratch honing his technical skills. He moved to experiment other media and programs. Now he focuses on composition and narratives. He gets better everyday.

From this to $69 million. Uber Jay - Beeple.

Self-doubt, perfection and fear of failure are normal parts of the creative process. They are not easy to deal with but we must. Over come the resistance. Shut the little voices in your head. As Seth Godin would say, "???????? ??????????, ???????? ?????????? ??????????, ?????? ????????. ???????? ????????????????????." 

Mozart composed 600+ pieces of music, Agatha Christie wrote 60+ novels and Van Gogh painted 800+ oil paintings, yet, only a few of their creations are truly very loved. I like to remind myself that people are judging me way less than I imagine.

The War of Art - good read for content creators. Book review here.

In the book The War of Art, Steven Pressfield nicely put it, "?????? ???????? ?????????????????? ?????????? ?????????? ?????? ???? ???? ????????. ?????????????? ???????? ?????????????? ???????????? ?????????????? ???????? ?????????? ?????? ?????? ????????????."

C?O?N?S?I?S?T?E?N?C?Y?

The First 5,000 Days is a mosaic of Beeple’s creations all the way from 1 May 2007. Five thousand days. That is 14 years. Beeple has been creating digital art one piece at a time, one day at a time. ????????????????.

Go to his website today and you will see works though 5088 (at the time of writing) consecutive days. If you subscribe to the 10,000 hours rule, assuming each piece took an average of 3 hours to make, Beeple is a master at 15,000+ hours.

Visit the site here.

Consistency has to be one of the most important positive trait. Seriously long term consistency is a virtue that has to be respected. Clearly, it is not easy.

I just started a meditation habit. Two weeks in and I am starting to slip. I found that picking back up is harder than starting! So, got to keep the momentum going!

Here are 3?? pieces of wisdom I hope will inspire you (and myself) to build that consistent habit:

James Clear - ?????????? ??????????????, ?????? ??????????... ?????????? ?????? ???????? ?????? ???????????????? ???????? ???????????????? ?????? ?????????????? ?????? ???????? ?????? ???????????????? ???????????? ????????????????.

BJ Fogg - ???????????? ???????? ???????? ???? ???????????????? ???????????????? ???? ??????????????????.

Harvey Mackey - ???? ?????? ?????? ????????????????????, ?????? ???????? ?????? ????. ???? ?????? ?????? ????????????????????, ?????? ???????? ???????? ????.

C?A?T?A?L?Y?S?T?

There are plenty of talented content creators out there. And there a many are consistent as well. Yet many are not be discovered.

In the book ??????????????????, Shane Snow contrasted the different path of two content creators in 2010.

A great book jammed with practical tips on doing things better. See review here.

The first, Paul Vasquez who had a Twitter video post picked up by Jimmy Kimmel calling it "the funniest video in the world." Accolades don't come more power than this. Paul had 38 million views, appeared on Jimmy's show and had his video parodied by Jimmy Fallon.

The same month, a home tutorial video on YouTube to re-create Lady Gaga's look from the MV "Bad Romance" was recommended by BuzzFeed, it was posted by one Michelle Phan. You probably have heard of Michelle and probably not of Paul.

One key difference between them? Michelle spent years practicing her craft and building a body of work. When her break came, she had gathered enough potential energy that the catalyst took her very far.

Much like in life. We may have the competence and diligence and sometimes opportunities may not find us. Luck plays a part. Luck is often a catalyst and it is important. However, whether it finds us or we go find it, when it comes we got to know to recognise it and let loose the potential energy you have built up. Basically, you got to have the goods to show for it.

Well, you may say that luck is something that cannot be controlled. Thomas Jefferson will have you know that he found that the hard he works, the more luck he seems to have.

C?R?E?A?T?I?N?G? ?W?O?R?K? X C?O?N?S?I?S?T?E?N?C?Y? X C?A?T?A?L?Y?S?T?

There is no overnight success without these.

Yet, having all three won't guarantee success.

But if these three traits are not present, then success can be very elusive.

#bubble #perspectives #success #fear #skills #socialmedia #content #goals #motivation #inspiration #personaldevelopment #luck