Vincent Van Gogh never really liked his work. He spent his short life trying to be as good as the painters he admired. Sadly, he never really knew how good he was. This isn’t unusual for very creative people.
When Vivian Maier died, she left a treasure trove of remarkable photographs of street scenes from New York, Chicago, and places all over the world. She never showed them to anyone. It was only after she died that three collectors discovered her work and she became known as one of the greatest photographers of her time.
The number of captivating unread novels sitting in a box under someone’s bed, or beautiful unseen paintings hiding away in a closet are probably too many to count. There are likely thousands of works or art, literature, music and more that were never completed because the creators got frustrated, begin to have doubts, and shelved the projects. This inevitably leads to creative people falling short of realizing their full potential.
To all of those undiscovered geniuses, I have two simple guidelines for making great work: (1) It is better to be prolific than perfect. And (2) Don’t wait until you think you are good enough to start sharing your work.
These guidelines are based on a principle used in design thinking called satisficing. Satisficing is a decision making approach where you aim for an adequate solution instead of an optimal solution. Sounds counter intuitive, right? Shouldn’t we always try for the best? Of course we always want to do our best, but consider that a key part of the design thinking process involves making multiple, rapid prototypes. As a rule, it’s better to create a lot of ideas Instead of working on one solution and trying to get it perfect. Being satisfied with a concept that is “good enough” and then working on a second one—and then a third one, ultimately leads to better solutions. And it is better to share your work—regardless of how you feel about it—than to hide it away until you create something better. This ensures that you will get plenty of needed feedback early and often to help you create your next project.
Creating great work is a numbers game. Despite how Van Gogh and Maier might have felt about their work—Van Gogh completed 900 paintings in ten years and Maier left over 100,000 images behind. It is a fact that the more work you create the more likely it is that you will create something great. But to do that, you have to finish everything you start. Even if you lose interest or become frustrated with a project—you must push through to the end and finish. Malcom Gladwell writes in his best-selling book, Outliers, that it takes 10,000 hours of doing anything to become good at it (Gladwell). I would add that those 10,000 hours should be spent actually completing the process of creating by executing something tangible.
Jimmy Buffet is one of the world’s richest musicians. And while many people, including me, love his music, Jimmy Buffet has never been a critically acclaimed musician. By his own admission, his songs never got a lot of airplay. It was 30 years before he won an industry award, has never won a Grammy, and has only been nominated twice— both for collaborations. But from 1973 to 1983, Buffet produced an album every year. In addition, he wrote three best selling books, opened a successful chain of restaurants, and launched one of the most successful lines of merchandise of any musician. Jimmy Buffet may not be perfect—but he is prolific! Most any musician, designer, artist, writer, or other creator would love to be as imperfect as Jimmy Buffet.
Gladwell, Malcolm. “Complexity and the Ten-Thousand-Hour Rule.” The New Yorker, www.newyorker.com/sports/sporting-scene/complexity-and-the-ten-thousand-hour-rule.
About Vivian Maier. Vivian Maier Photographer. (n.d.). http://www.vivianmaier.com/about-vivian-maier/.
Eng, Steve. Jimmy Buffett: The Man from Margaritaville Revealed. Macmillan.
Dusty Crocker, PhD, is Professor of Professional Design Practice at Texas Christian University.