It’s human nature to want everyone to love your work, but that’s not how it works. Be the hot sauce in a world of oatmeal.
This rule was heavily inspired by James Victore and his book “Feck Perfuction: Dangerous Ideas on the Business of Life.” I highly recommend this book to everyone! Go out and buy it right now. If you already have a copy, buy another one.
It will be tempting (especially in the sanitized corporate world) to tamp down your work in order for it to be palatable for mass consumption. Don’t do it, the world needs more weird sh!t in it. Look around you, everything these days is boring, inoffensive, beige, oatmeal. Easy for the masses to consume without getting a tummy ache. There’s no passion, excitement, or edge anymore lest someone get… upset!!! (heaven forbid)
The things that made you weird as a kid, make you great today.
– James Victore
A large impact on a few is worth more than a small impact on many, so get comfortable with people hating your work. If they hate it, it wasn’t meant for them. Keep your work weird, and stop making oatmeal that everyone is just ok with.
You are an artist and a genius. Don’t fit in. Don’t even try.
– James Victore
This story is part of an ongoing series diving into the origins of each of rules outlined in Octavo (My eight-fold principles of life and work). Click here to see the full set of rules and to download and print your own copy of the rules and Zine.
Octavo (8vo) is both a format and a philosophy; it is a sheet of paper folded into 8 equal sections to form a book, and it is a philosophy folded into eight principles to form the architecture of how we work and live. Keep these principles posted wherever your work is done and refer to them often. Keep the zine in your back pocket at all times and refer to it when tempted to stray. Both the principles and the zine are provided here for free and can be printed from any monochrome printer that accepts legal-sized paper. Distribute as you see fit to your friends, family, and colleagues (but do not modify).