Business Book Review: Steal Like an Artist by Austin Kleon
Steal Like an Artist reminds you that there are no new ideas. Your work provides an original take on those that have gone before you.
My Rating: ★★★★
Length: 160 pages
Publisher: Workman
Released: 2012
Key Takeaway for Personal Branding
Austin Kleon’s provocative New York Times best-seller is actually deeply pragmatic.
Austin outlines 10 principles for unlocking your creativity:
Steal like an artist
Don’t wait until you know who you are to get started
Write the book you want to read
Use your hands
Side projects and hobbies are important
The Secret: do good work and share it with people
Geography is no longer our Master
Be nice (the world is a small town)
Be boring (it’s the only way to get work done)
Creativity is subtraction
Steal like an artist
Kleon reminds us that there are no new ideas. All your work builds on the work of those that have gone before you. And because you can never imitate perfectly (nor should you desire to), your work becomes your original take on ideas.
Kleon quotes basketball legend, Kobe Bryant, who said.
“There isn’t a move that’s a new move.”
Bryant’s on-court theatrics were a result of studying the tapes of his heroes. But, because he wasn’t them, with their same body type, he couldn’t copy them perfectly, so he adapted. Making them his own.
Creativity is subtraction
It’s often said that the best design comes not from what is added, but from what is taken away. Kleon finishes his principles with this important reminder for creative pursuits.
In this age of information abundance and overload, those who get ahead will be the folks who figure out what to leave out.
He celebrates the freedom in creative constraints. And proposes that limited resources and time can do wonders for your creativity.
Kleon highlights that Dr Seuss wrote The Cat in a Hat with only 236 different words. His editor then bet him he couldn’t write a book with only 50 different words. He wrote Green Eggs and Ham which went on to become one of the bestselling children’s books of all time.
Favourite Quotes
Draw the art you want to see, start the business you want to run, play the music you want to hear, write the books you want to read, build the products you want to use—do the work you want to see done.
Think about your favorite work and your creative heroes. What did they miss? What didn’t they make? What could’ve been made better?
…cartoonist, Lynda Barry, has this saying: “In the digital age, don’t forget to use your digits!” Your hands are the original digital devices. Use them.
The thing is, you can cut off a couple passions and only focus on one, but after a while, you’ll start to feel phantom limb pain.
Step 1: Wonder at something. Step 2: Invite others to wonder with you. You should wonder at the things nobody else is wondering about. If everybody’s wondering about apples, go wonder about oranges. The more open you are about sharing your passions, the closer people will feel to your work.
Most websites and blogs are set up to show posts in reverse-chronological order—the latest post is the first post that visitors see, so you’re only as good as your last post.
Not everybody will get it. People will misinterpret you and what you do. They might even call you names. So get comfortable with being misunderstood, disparaged, or ignored—the trick is to be too busy doing your work to care.
Steal Like an Artist proves why a decade on it continues to steal the hearts of creatives. And since we all have creativity within us, there is something for everyone to steal from this.
Steal Like an Artist by Austin Kleon: Available on Amazon.
