📷 Snapshot Review

Have you ever thought, ‘it would be fun to start a YouTube channel’ or ‘maybe I should start a blog’ but you refrained through fear of looking foolish? I have too. That was until I read this book.

Show Your Work is a small, 224-page motivational handbook that explains why you don’t have to be an expert to share your work, why you should share your progress before you’ve reached your ultimate outcome, and why you should be yourself, be vulnerable and above all else connect with likeminded people.

Littered with inspiring quotes at the start of each chapter, Show Your Work will push you to share your progress online and unapologetically assume the position of an amateur

✍️ Summary of Themes

The lone genius; endowed with creativity as if a divine force …is a total myth. Kleon says that if you look back at history with a magnifying glass you’ll notice that these geniuses were part of a cohort of people supporting each other, contributing ideas and stealing ideas. Creativity is always, in some way or another, a collaboration. Though it was only touched on, this reminded me of the Derek Silver’s quote, “What seems obvious to you might be amazing to others.” Years later, outside of the aforementioned creative cohort of not-so-geniuses, people look to one or two of these and say ‘wow – they were so original’ but in the moment, the not-so-geniuses are all thinking, ‘why should I share my work when I don’t have any original ideas?’

Humans are all interested in the journey, not just the destination. As King of Pop, Michael Jackson once said, “A lot of people are so used to just seeing the outcome of work. They never see the side of the work you go through to produce the outcome.” The author implores us to start a work journal, keep a scrapbook, take photos at different stages of your process, record videos – whatever you need to do to Show Your Work at a later date. He employs Disney’s Creative Director to insist that if you “put yourself, and your work, out there every day […] you’ll start meeting some amazing people.”

Vulnerability breeds connection. Or as New York Times bestselling author Brené Brown put it: “In order for connection to happen, we have to allow ourselves to be seen—really seen.” This one got me. I’ve been perfectly happy to show my work in the past. Here’s an awesome coffee I made. This is me on telly. But in all of the past instances I’ve been hiding behind my employer, the singer, my guitar. Kleon explains that personal stories make the complex more tangible, and bring warmth to concepts that can otherwise seem cold and lifeless. This whole concept can be summed up by this mindblowingly satisfying and pithy quote from Jadah Sellner, “there are no unique messages, only unique messengers”.

🙋🏼‍♂️ Who Should Read It?

Anyone who needs a dose of courage to start sharing their work and their personality online.

If you have ever thought, ‘maybe I should start a blog’ or, ‘I bet starting a YouTube channel would be fun’ but you’ve been held back by the fear of putting yourself out there – read this book.

💡 How Can I Apply This In My Life?

Simple – I need to show my work! I was already on this journey when I started reading the book, having set up this blog at the start of 2021, but Show your Work gave me permission to share it on LinkedIn and Twitter. Now I’ve shared my first book summary, perhaps the second won’t be as scary?
Be vulnerable. I knew this already, having read Dare To Lead in 2019, but unlike Brené Brown who asked me to be vulnerable to benefit those I lead, Austin Kleon convinced me that being vulnerable is good for me too.

💬 My Top 3 Quotes

“Give what you have. To someone, it may be better than you dare to think.” —Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Become a documentarian of what you do. Start a work journal: Write your thoughts down in a notebook, or speak them into an audio recorder. Keep a scrapbook. Take a lot of photographs of your work at different stages in your process. Shoot video of you working. This isn’t about making art, it’s about simply keeping track of what’s going on around you. Take advantage of all the cheap, easy tools at your disposal—these days, most of us carry a fully functional multimedia studio around in our smartphones.
Where do you get your inspiration? What sorts of things do you fill your head with? What do you read? Do you subscribe to anything? What sites do you visit on the Internet? What music do you listen to? What movies do you see? Do you look at art? What do you collect? What’s inside your scrapbook? What do you pin to the corkboard above your desk? What do you stick on your refrigerator? Who’s done work that you admire? Who do you steal ideas from? Do you have any heroes? Who do you follow online? Who are the practitioners you look up to in your field? Your influences are all worth sharing because they clue people in to who you are and what you do—sometimes even more than your own work.

📒 Notes & Highlights

Show Your Work!: 10 Ways to Share Your Creativity and Get Discovered

“Creativity is not a talent. It is a way of operating.” —John Cleese

this book is about how to influence others by letting them steal from you.

“Give what you have. To someone, it may be better than you dare to think.” —Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

If you look back closely at history, many of the people who we think of as lone geniuses were actually part of “a whole scene of people who were supporting each other, looking at each other’s work, copying from each other, stealing ideas, and contributing ideas.”

creativity is always, in some sense, a collaboration, the result of a mind connected to other minds.

“That’s all any of us are: amateurs. We don’t live long enough to be anything else.” —Charlie Chaplin

Amateurs know that contributing something is better than contributing nothing.

“The fellow-pupil can help more than the master because he knows less. The difficulty we want him to explain is one he has recently met. The expert met it so long ago he has forgotten.”

The best way to get started on the path to sharing your work is to think about what you want to learn, and make a commitment to learning it in front of others.

“Find your voice, shout it from the rooftops, and keep doing it until the people that are looking for you find you.” — Dan Harmon

“Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything—all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure—these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked.” —Steve Jobs

“A lot of people are so used to just seeing the outcome of work. They never see the side of the work you go through to produce the outcome.” —Michael Jackson

human beings are interested in other human beings and what other human beings do.

“In order for connection to happen, we have to allow ourselves to be seen—really seen.” —Brené Brown

whatever the nature of your work, there is an art to what you do, and there are people who would be interested in that art,

Become a documentarian of what you do. Start a work journal: Write your thoughts down in a notebook, or speak them into an audio recorder. Keep a scrapbook. Take a lot of photographs of your work at different stages in your process. Shoot video of you working. This isn’t about making art, it’s about simply keeping track of what’s going on around you. Take advantage of all the cheap, easy tools at your disposal—these days, most of us carry a fully functional multimedia studio around in our smartphones.

“Put yourself, and your work, out there every day, and you’ll start meeting some amazing people.” —Bobby Solomon

Overnight success is a myth. Dig into almost every overnight success story and you’ll find about a decade’s worth of hard work and perseverance.

Once a day, after you’ve done your day’s work, go back to your documentation and find one little piece of your process that you can share.

Don’t worry about everything you post being perfect.

“If you work on something a little bit every day, you end up with something that is massive.” —Kenneth Goldsmith

“Carving out a space for yourself online, somewhere where you can express yourself and share your work, is still one of the best possible investments you can make with your time.” —Andy Baio

So, if you get one thing out of this book make it this: Go register a domain name. Buy www.[insert your name here].com.

Don’t think of your website as a self-promotion machine, think of it as a self-invention machine.

Where do you get your inspiration? What sorts of things do you fill your head with? What do you read? Do you subscribe to anything? What sites do you visit on the Internet? What music do you listen to? What movies do you see? Do you look at art? What do you collect? What’s inside your scrapbook? What do you pin to the corkboard above your desk? What do you stick on your refrigerator? Who’s done work that you admire? Who do you steal ideas from? Do you have any heroes? Who do you follow online? Who are the practitioners you look up to in your field? Your influences are all worth sharing because they clue people in to who you are and what you do—sometimes even more than your own work.

All it takes to uncover hidden gems is a clear eye, an open mind, and a willingness to search for inspiration in places other people aren’t willing or able to go.

NOTE: Create a unique content diet

“Do what you do best and link to the rest.” —Jeff Jarvis

Don’t share things you can’t properly credit. Find the right credit, or don’t share.

Human beings want to know where things came from, how they were made, and who made them. The stories you tell about the work you do have a huge effect on how people feel and what they understand about your work, and how people feel and what they understand about your work affects how they value it.

Personal stories can make the complex more tangible, spark associations, and offer entry into things that might otherwise leave one cold.”

If you want to be more effective when sharing yourself and your work, you need to become a better storyteller. You need to know what a good story is and how to tell one.

Tell the truth and tell it with dignity and self-respect.

Strike all the adjectives from your bio. If you take photos, you’re not an “aspiring” photographer, and you’re not an “amazing” photographer, either. You’re a photographer. Don’t get cute. Don’t brag. Just state the facts.

Teaching doesn’t mean instant competition.

The minute you learn something, turn around and teach it to others. Share your reading list. Point to helpful reference materials. Create some tutorials and post them online. Use pictures, words, and video. Take people step-by-step through part of your process.

“When people realize they’re being listened to, they tell you things.” —Richard Ford

Make stuff you love and talk about stuff you love and you’ll attract people who love that kind of stuff. It’s that simple.

“Whatever excites you, go do it. Whatever drains you, stop doing it.” —Derek Sivers

As you put yourself and your work out there, you will run into your fellow knuckleballers. These are your real peers—the people who share your obsessions, the people who share a similar mission to your own, the people with whom you share a mutual respect. There will only be a handful or so of them, but they’re so, so important. Do what you can to nurture your relationships with these people. Sing their praises to the universe. Invite them to collaborate. Show them work before you show anybody else. Call them on the phone and share your secrets. Keep them as close as you can.

If you spend your life avoiding vulnerability, you and your work will never truly connect with other people.

Even if you don’t have anything to sell right now, you should always be collecting email addresses from people who come across your work and want to stay in touch.

I know people who run multimillion-dollar businesses off of their mailing lists. The model is very simple: They give away great stuff on their sites, they collect emails, and then when they have something remarkable to share or sell, they send an email. You’d be amazed at how well the model works.

The people who get what they’re after are very often the ones who just stick around long enough.

“The minute you stop wanting something you get it.” —Andy Warhol

It’s very important to separate your work from the rest of your life. As my wife said to me, “If you never go to work, you never get to leave work.”

“Whenever Picasso learned how to do something, he abandoned it.” —Milton Glaser

When you feel like you’ve learned whatever there is to learn from what you’re doing, it’s time to change course and find something new to learn so that you can move forward.

You can’t be content with mastery; you have to push yourself to become a student again.

Look for something new to learn, and when you find it, dedicate yourself to learning it out in the open.

Document your progress and share as you go so that others can learn along with you.

Tyler Roberts

Show Your Work – Austin Kleon – Book Notes