Your Work is Worth Doing Even if It Doesn’t Work
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There are a few things worth repeating and this is one Seth Godin does repeat. Here’s why.
The modern world is built on industrialism which introduced the notions of productivity and profitability. Results became all that matters and the mindset has since been: if it’s not going to work, it’s not worth doing.
What you want to do is not industrial, it might be creative or a service, yet the general mindset hasn’t changed and puts pressure on anyone who wants to do something different. People around you function with that mentality.
You need to keep showing up for what you want, what you love. The right question is, “What would you do if you knew you might fail?”
Right there, is where real passion and commitment.
The results we expect don’t usually come soon enough. Sometimes, they don’t come at all, but the value of the work is the work itself. The practice is the path.
In the meantime, you are honing your skills, building a volume of work, gaining expertise and fulfilling a promise to yourself.
In the list of regrets of the dying, you will not find, “I wish I hadn’t had a go at my dream”.
“If you can tell yourself, ‘I’m doing this with a practice, with a spirit of generosity, understanding the genre, having looked at what has come before, and it still might not work, but I’m going to do it anyway,’ now you’re onto something.”
Seth Godin
