Bit by bit, greatness follows

When I was 15 I awoke one morning at 5am and daubed a frenzied oil landscape. Paint and spatula. Passion and pain.

Eager I was, but Turner I was not. The results were very pleasing to me, though sadly not to the art world. The blinkered GCSE examiners were not at all ready for my precocious talent.

I’ve had other Bohemian bursts of wunder creativity over the years, which whilst cathartic have rarely led to brilliance. But let's leave my unappreciated artistic endeavours aside.

I’m currently three-quarters of the way through listening to Richard Wagner’s Ring Cycle of four operas. For many fans it is the greatest whole musical experience there is. I’m not going to argue, but it is quite the marathon, with over 16 hours of music to get your ears round.

Producing a work like this is not something you peel off after an opium-fuelled episode or a bottle of Absinthe (not that I was pursuing either option when I was 15!). Composition of the Ring Cycle took years – more than 26 in fact from beginning to end. And given that he wrote the words and the score, necessitated great intellect and musicality too.

How did he manage to complete it? Well, he had a 12-year gap in the middle whilst he wrote some other things and made a cuppa. But above all I believe it came down to focus and persistence.

Whilst much can be attributed to creative talent, more, in the case of producing these operas, is about discipline and an unrelenting work ethic. Whatever drove him, he must have slowly added to the whole, word by word, note by note.

In longer time-frames discipline is the best friend of creativity, and procrastination its arch enemy, and getting on with things bit by bit, ultimately, is the most likely route to greater rewards.

Whatever your output, one thing we can all do is patiently add, bit by bit. Sometimes you will get to admire an entire grand production but moreover, I wonder, is it how we lead our entire careers that eventually delivers the ‘whole’ experience?