Perfection is the enemy.

Post 18 of Dream, create and make money in the arts – My Series on becoming a Successful Creative

You will not be perfect, it is OK. This is a great thing. You will keep learning, striving, improving.. never have the feeling that your life is over as you already are the best you can be and the only way is down…. (good thing about being a creative and not a professional athlete!)

I remember once in my early years of putting cabaret on, someone said how the best bit of my show was that they loved my in between song chat (I have since taken 10 years of singing lessons! ) but I immediately thought ‘Ahh OK”, and started a stand up comedy course, met some great friends who I still see to this day and off I wrote an Edinburgh show that was based on the cabaret and the comedy in between. Having just done less than 6 months of stand up before the show was interesting, as was fact I was woefully unprepared and was writing the show in the car on the motorway there!! However we had sold out nights, a great experience and reviews that ranged from very positive to shockingly vituperative.
I am like Marmite, you love me or you hate me. Even now after years of singing practice and performance, and dozens of shows at one of the top auditoriums in the world (Royal Festival Hall) I still meet people who hate my voice, not the notes but the tone and maybe even my presence. Equally others of equal or greater stature love how and who I am, my ambition, my abilities, my never giving up and the fact I have mad harmony skills and top notes. I have just learnt to accept it, acknowledge some people I will never work for and others I will keep being rehired.

I listened to the following Chris Brogan podcast and I was reminded again of this.
We have to keep reminding ourselves to be the best version of ourselves we can be. Our art is distinct and fabulous, our voice, body or paintbrush tells each story in our own way, we bring our dating, family, love, loss history into our work. This is how it should be. It is not perfect.
Art allows us to transmute pain, show compassion, wield a sword of truth (Yep somehow I have come back to Jerusalem ). It is our art, noone else’s. So create your own precious piece today.

About this series – Being a Successful Creative – The Business of Creativity


This is a series of daily blogs for you on how to dream up, build, market and sell a creative event, gig, festival, book launch, cabaret night, exhibition of rude plastic cupcakes or whatever creatively inspires you. It is time to create and put on that play about your family, a series of drawings about hedgehogs, the album you have talked about making or the short film you always wanted to write and make.