Innoveering Nebraska

With a title like Crush It! Why Now is the Time to Cash in on Your Passion and my previous experience with Gary Vaynerchuk’s insightful but very colorful presentations, I was more than a little nervous when I started reading this book.  I had nothing to fear.  Unlike Hugh MacLeod‘s (Ignore Everybody), Vaynerchuk is a perfect gentleman in print. 

Interestingly, while MacLeod advocates for always retaining a “real” job and treating your passion as a hobby you generate some income from, Vaynerchuk strongly advocates for pursuing your passion with hussle and making an average to great income from doing and talking about what you love. 

From Vaynerchuk’s view, you’ll never need a vacation if you’re doing what you love.  This is a message I initially believed was in contrast to the lifestyle Tim Ferriss advocates in The 4-Hour Work Week.  They aren’t though.  Ferriss wants us to find a business model that doesn’t take much of our time so that we can pursue our passions., while Veynerchuk wants us to make our living with our passions.  Both achieve the same goal: income and time devoted to doing what we love. 

Crush It! is filled with a healthy balance of both inspirational and practical advice.  It’s also the type of advice I really appreciate.  Veynerchuk doesn’t tell us exactly what to do.  Instead he shares an outline of advice with enough examples for each of us to imagine how we could apply his methods to our individual circumstances.  This type of advice seems easy to give when you’re reading it, but I know from experience that it takes more thought and effort than any set of specific directions. 

Which brings me to the greatest value in Crush It!  It’s plain that Veynerchuk not only cares about his audiences and wishes each of us success – he believes each of us is capable of succeeding.  That’s a powerful read for anyone. 

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In “Ignore Everybody – And 39 Other Keys to Creativity” Hugh MacLeod isn’t teaching us to be creative (as “Imagination First”  and “Why Not” did).  Instead he shares his life experiences in falling into the career of an artist and entrepreneur.  This isn’t bad, in fact it’s very useful information and was a courageous thing to do.  It just wasn’t what I was expecting from the title and the hype.

The book is a good look into the life of an entrepreneur (albeit from the perspective of a seemingly grizzled, somewhat jaded and possibly dirty old man-esque entrepreneur). 

I found the book compelling enough to read in one sitting.  Each section is focused neatly on a specific topic with a few overarching themes (control your work, don’t rely on others, and it’s okay to make money from your passion – but don’t make your entire living from it).   

I don’t know that all of MacLeod’s message is relevant for everyone.  However, with the title “Ignore Everyone” I suspect he’d support the idea of readers taking what advice they need and ignoring the rest. 

The book is also freckled with MacLeod’s art – which is often poignant, insightful and not appropriate for children. 

Which brings me to some of the language used in the book.  Some readers might be offended while others will embrace it.  If you fall into the first category, please keep reading.  The book is worth it – I promise.  If you decide it’s not, you can contact me and cuss me out for misleading you. 

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On January 7th I posted some thoughts on what qualifies someone for the “entrepreneur” label.  I still don’t have a firm definition, but I wanted to share a couple of opinions which have recently influenced my thoughts on this matter. 

First, two fellows I met at Awesome Camp in Lincoln on January 30th are very certain that someone can be entrepreneurial without being an entrepreneur.  If I understood them correctly (and I confess it was the end of an exciting day at the end of a tiring week) there must be several livelihoods dependant on the endeavor for someone to qualify as an entrepreneur.  To cite my earlier example, by these definitions my friend’s Lego operation is entrepreneurial, but doesn’t qualify her as an entrepreneur. 

This makes sense to me, but I find it unsatisfactory.  I think more words might be needed. 

In the meantime, I received an email today with a link to Hugh MacLeod’s new prints related to Seth Godin’s latest book, Linchpin.  In Linchpin: Are You Indispensable, Godin has a different definition of artist than Rocco Landesman, the NEA Chairman I quoted in my January 7th post.  Both Landesman and Godin believe artists are entrepreneurs. 

I’m going to quote MacLeod’s website directly, because I can’t say it any better than he has:  By Seth’s definition, an artist is not just some person who messes around with paint and brushes, an artist is somebody who does (and I LOVE this term) “emotional work.”  Work that you put your heart and soul into. Work that matters. Work that you gladly sacrifice all other alternatives for. As a working artist and cartoonist myself, I know exactly what he means. It’s not what you do, it’s the way that you do it. – end quote

The idea that people doing “emotional work” are entrepreneurs resonates with me.  However, I have great respect for the two business men I met and their belief that entrepreneurial activities do not qualify one as an entrepreneur. 

I’m wondering if the words and definitions would line up to everyone’s satisfaction if we made a distinction between “entrepreneurs” (those with emotional work and/or entrepreneurial activities) and “business entrepreneurs” (those with livelihoods depending on their endeavor). 

Check out the rest of MacLeod’s prints here or order his book, Ignore Everybody: And 39 Other Keys to Creativity, here. 

Read reviews or order a copy of Godin’s book, Linchpin, here.    

By the way, isn’t it fun to see how one creative work inspires another?  How creative are you feeling today?  Do you think we have any obligation to share our creativity with others?  Who inspires you to be creative?  Can you spend more time with them or their work?  Can you do it today?

Below is one of Hugh MacLeod’s prints inspired by Seth Godin’s Linchpin. 

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