Pop quiz: What’s so hard about making something and publishing it?
Answer: Shipping your work means somebody else will see it.
If somebody else sees your work, they’ll spot all your screw ups, call you mean names, leave a one-star review on Amazon, point out what a fraud you are, and you’ll cry all night into your soy latte.
Nobody ever said that making stuff was easy.
Shipping your work means showing up and being seen. Standing out from the hypnotized masses is a risky move, even if the risk is all in your own head.
On the plus side, you get attention.
On the down side, you get attention.
There’s an idea going around the TED Talk circles that creating and shipping is about being “vulnerable”.
Maybe. It’s kinda true. Shipping work is risky, but I don’t approve of the language.
To be vulnerable implies a position of weakness, low status, and victimhood.
You may in fact be in such a position.
That doesn’t mean you ought to frame it as such.
I prefer to talk about resilience and fortitude.
On a sliding scale between a rare porcelain vase and Trump locked in a room full of rainbow-haired journalists, how much punishment can you take?
Courage involves commitment to principles and the endurance to stand fast when those convictions are put to the test.
The more resilience you bring, the more you can take.
Vulnerable you may be, but it won’t matter. You’re trained, honed, and refined to take everything they can throw at you with an arrogant smirk plastered on your face.
In a world of oblivious bovines aspiring to take out their frustrations on anyone daring to leave the herd, you’ll need flame-retardant clothing at the minimum.
The game isn’t about vulnerability. It’s about your determination to absorb punishment and laugh it off.
Vulnerable is bare skin rubbed raw.
Resilience is the callus that grows in a week later.
Show up with a nuclear-resistant carapace that shrugs off trolls, reply-guys, and all sorts of psychic vermin, and nothing can touch you.
Matt Perryman
https://matts.email