After we have wrestled with the making of the idea, we then must figure out how that idea can generate income. For Entrepreneurs this usually involves a business plan, investors, bootstrapping. For Artists, the path is less clear. We do a lot of bushwhacking to clear a path for ourselves. Artists universally recognize the importance of Artist Statements, and yet we hate them so passionately that there is more than one site that will generate an Artist Statement for you.
 
Kickstarter revolutionized the way artists and makers could raise money for projects (though funders' biases might play more of a role in your project's success than the worthiness of your project itself), and Patreon has created a way for artists to have a sustained income stream from donors. There are so many more ways than there used to be for artists – or anyone with a product or an idea – to drum up income.
 
Sometimes I think Artists would benefit from thinking like Entrepreneurs – being strategic, having a 3-5-year plan, seeking unconventional sources of funding. And sometimes I think Entrepreneurs would benefit from thinking more like Artists – creating a path for their ideas when there doesn’t exist a path that fits their needs. In the end, I wonder if there are more ways for Artists and Entrepreneurs to connect with and learn from one another. Here in Minneapolis we have Giant Steps. These connections can happen in less formal ways, too. How can we get out of our social and professional bubbles and help each other be successful?

Artists are creating something (a painting, an installation, a performance, a play script, a curated experience, a piece of music) that has never existed before. Then we have to explain what it is to people so that those people will invest in it.
 
Art comes from an intuitive place, a place separate from “marketability” and “brand”. We are never sure where a piece of art will lead. This is different from working on a project on behalf of a company, where initiatives must follow a corporate strategy. Art follows no strategy.
 
Entrepreneurs, when starting out, are like artists following the scent of an idea that has great potential. Artists and Entrepreneurs both operate on instinct and passion at first, in spite of people telling us our idea is crazy, or that no one will buy into it. We act on faith at first, trusting our ideas and stubbornly promising ourselves we’ll find a way to make them profitable.
 
We learn in school that hard skills like math and grammar are valuable, and soft skills like creativity and imagination are superfluous. But successful entrepreneurs are highly creative people who imagine a world that doesn’t exist yet; and successful artists are entrepreneurs who figure out a way to make a living off of their vision. Let’s learn from each other.

One of the reasons I’m drawn to the theater is that plays are an invitation to get inside of perspectives other than our own. It's like being let into a secret club. Theater creates space for empathy. It’s easier to create this space with a story than just in conversation. I love Seth Godin’s thoughts on how empathy is a bridge.
 
Theater is about seeing each other, recognizing and accepting each other for who we are.
 
How can we see and hear each other in our every day lives? At work, at home? Stories help. Being open to sharing our perspective helps. Being open and listening to other perspectives helps, too.

The ultimate deadline is opening night. People have already bought tickets to whatever you are writing, rehearsing, choreographing, or constructing. There is no option to push back the deadline. There is no way to postpone the launch. There are people who have paid good money to sit in specific seats on a specific date and see your show. So you better figure out how to give it to them.

This is not to say we get it right every time. It’s also not to say that staying up all night in a dark theater in a flop sweat trying to solve the latest problem is the healthiest way of working on a project. But all of us – actors, playwrights, directors, designers, stage managers, technicians – we all have ingrained in us the universal rallying cry of theater people everywhere: “The show must go on!” It’s half time management, and half elbow grease, this ability of ours to make miracles happen within very strict timelines.

Next time you’re working towards a deadline and you start to think there’s no way you’ll finish in time, remember the costume designer sewing buttons until 2 AM. Remember the actor pacing the floor of his apartment in the pattern of his fight choreography. Remember the technician who stays after rehearsal to get on a ladder and re-hang lights because they aren't quite right. What will it take for your show to go on? How will you create magic with the resources you have?

I am not a person who wants to do work that’s “good enough.” I want to do work that’s Excellent, that Exceeds Expectations, that improves my life and the lives of those who come into contact with my work. Good Enough is not good enough for me, and it isn’t for you, either, if you are striving to have real impact in the world.
 
But I struggle sometimes to feel like I, as a human being, am Good Enough. Just as I am. With my flaws and my weaknesses. I’m worthy of success and respect and goodness, even though I’m imperfect. In this case, Good Enough is good enough. Good Enough is perfect. Good Enough is human.
 
Only when we accept ourselves as Good Enough are we able to make work that is more than Good Enough.

Many brands and companies struggle to tell their story – they know what they’re about, but find it difficult to articulate their vision in a way that connects with customers or investors. Likewise, I’ve watched highly intelligent leaders struggle to sift through piles of data and pull out the narrative therein.
 
There are some great articles floating around about how to craft a compelling brand or product or data story that holds people's attention. But, as a playwright, I’d like to draw your attention to this book by David Ball. The book was written for actors, to help them closely read play texts. But I like to think of it as a manual for writing narrative.
 
In the book, Ball breaks down narrative into three sections which I find way more helpful than Beginning, Middle, and End. He breaks plot into: Stasis, Intrusion, and the Struggle for New Stasis. This is a much more active way of thinking about story - if Stasis is the status quo, the way things are now, then Intrusion is exactly what it sounds like - a disruption. An inconvenience. And the Struggle for New Stasis is your heroic attempt to solve the problem of the Intrusion.
 
Next time you have to give a presentation, think like a playwright.

Has anyone ever told you this? My former boss used to tell me this all the time. It took a full year of being his assistant, but I started to think like him, and could anticipate what he needed before he needed it. It’s satisfying to have magic powers – I loved the look on his face when he realized I was holding in front of him the very thing he opened his office door to ask me about.
 
It’s not as hard as you think. You can probably guess what your spouse or your best friend will order at brunch. You know how they take their coffee. When your co-worker walks away and then comes right back, you know it’s probably for that folder they left sitting on the corner of their desk.
 
Once you get good at anticipating what others need, you’ll surprise yourself with a terribly wrong guess. You'll be way off the mark, and won't know why. Have you lost your magic mind-reading mojo? When this happens to me, it’s because I made an assumption based on my own biases, rather than tuning in to another person’s words and actions. I let my conscious and unconscious beliefs influence my impression of someone else.
 
It’s easier than we think to understand the wants and needs of others. Listen for what's important to them, what their priorities are, what they’re passionate about. Try it. And it’s easier than we know to let our own false assumptions influence how we view others’ motives. The cure for this, too, is listening without judgment. Try it.