"Letting your customers set your standards is a dangerous game, because the race to the bottom is pretty easy to win. Setting your own standards--and living up to them--is a better way to profit. Not to mention a better way to make your day worth all the effort you put into it."
-- Seth Godin
TTL said:
This topic seems to be a recurring theme here, but it is a central question to every artist so it deserves to be.
If I had to choose between self-expression + small income, and letting other people dictate my expression + high income, the choice would be very easy. You can only enjoy life when your actions align with your higher self. Money, in comparison, is of little significance.
It is possible to get both. But only if you make self-expression the highest priority. It is a slower route but a much more satisfying one. Doing it backwards can result in a lock-up were you find it difficult to let go of the income in order to start anew the right way. I speak from experience, I made this very mistake years ago and learned a painful lesson.
3 comments:
Unless nobody's buying your stuff, then it might be a good idea to tailor it to what people want. Or if you don't care about making money doing what you love, you can just keep doing your own thing - like Tichy.
If people are suggesting actual improvements you'd be daft not to give it to them, since your own work improves in quality by extension. When you try to please every single person you run into trouble because you can't be all things to all people no matter how hard you work. So if it's an either or situation where you have to listen to the customers or you have to listen to your gut, your gut is the better option because you know what you're doing than anybody else does, or at least you should.
Take a popular television series. Read some fanfiction. Most fan authors mutilate what they love most. If the creator gave the fans what they wanted, his series would be ruined. Yet when he does his own thing they still love what he creates. They wouldn't be fans in the first place if they didn't.
The ideal situation is when you do your own thing and you get people just as smart, if not smarted than you, giving you pointers on what you can do differently to improve your work, whether they're customers or your higher ups. It's a good thing to be able to accept criticism/suggestions, you've just got to be selective about where you take it from.
This topic seems to be a recurring theme here, but it is a central question to every artist so it deserves to be.
If I had to choose between self-expression + small income, and letting other people dictate my expression + high income, the choice would be very easy. You can only enjoy life when your actions align with your higher self. Money, in comparison, is of little significance.
It is possible to get both. But only if you make self-expression the highest priority. It is a slower route but a much more satisfying one. Doing it backwards can result in a lock-up were you find it difficult to let go of the income in order to start anew the right way. I speak from experience, I made this very mistake years ago and learned a painful lesson.
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law.
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