Ep. 194: Seth Godin – Change Your Mind, Choose Your World & More Genius Advice From Seth Godin

What does it sound like when you change your mind?

That’s the name of Seth Godin’s next book. He only printed 5,500 copies. And he’s not printing anymore.

He doesn’t view a book as just pages surrounded by two covers. He makes a 3-dimensional object that’s beautiful to look at and read.

“It’s not new,” he said on my podcast. “It’s the best of the last four years of my work. And it’s illustrated with hundreds of photos by Thomas Hawk, who’s the most prolific and talented internet photographer.”

The book weighs 18 pounds. And it’s 800 pages long.

I asked him about art and marketing… and he told me about life.

A) START FROM THE BEGINNING

“No business, no project, no novel ever started big,” Seth said.

It started with fear, uncertainty, excitement, possibility. Tons of “what if’s” that lead to real action. And real action halts the what if’s. The what if’s turn to what is.

Seth said, “Instead of saying, ‘I need to leap to the middle,’ say, ‘I’m going to start with people who want to engage with me.'”

All successes start with one person. That’s it. One person, then two, then three.

Success is a curve. We all know it. Don’t try to cheat the curve.

B) KNOW YOUR WORLD

I asked Seth, “How do you know what the world wants to hear?”

“Well, first of all, never the whole world,” he said. “You pick your world.”

Where do you hurt? Where you do you feel a knot? Can you loosen it up and ease the pressure?

Can you create something for the people (or person) who want to love what you want to love?

C) WHAT DO YOU CARE ENOUGH TO SAY?

We talked about Facebook. And the Lays Potato Chip guy who re-designed the bag. His job was to make it sound crunchier.

Kids had slamming competitions. Who could slam a soda the fastest? So Coke-A-Cola created a bottle with a mouthpiece meant to maximize chugging efficiency.

They sold product. But it’s the message that matters.

I always say: message over money.

Invention happens at the edges. Between heart and lungs, breath and vocal chords is the message. It’s the thing you want to say. The thing you’re afraid to say.

“What really matters isn’t what time you posted on Facebook,” Seth said. “What matters is, what did you care enough to say?

D) ANYONE CAN LEAD…

“’Purple Cow‘ says, ‘How do I sit in my office and make a thing that people talk about?'”

“What ‘Tribes‘ says is ‘Now that anyone can stand up and lead (because anyone can have a media channel… because anyone can make connection) will you choose to lead? And if you’re going to lead, who will you lead? How will you connect the people you’re leading? That is marketing, but it’s also life.”

E) CULTURE BEATS EVERYTHING

“No one has a Suzuki tattoo,” Seth said.

“What’s a Suzuki tattoo?” I asked.

Then I got it. Harley Davidson makes half their revenue licensing their brand. T-shirts, jackets, etc.

“If you’re in the Harley tribe, you can’t show up on a Suzuki,” he said.

“Tribes aren’t about the alpha to the omega. Leaders always go away. The alpha person dies or moves on. But the tribe doesn’t. The tribe persists. Because culture beats everything. Scenes have a culture. Tribes have a culture. It’s culture that determines how an organization make its choices, how a nation will evolve.”

I’ve said this before. It doesn’t matter who the president is. What matters is who you surround yourself with. Who’s in your tribe? Who’s in your heart?

And if they’re toxic to your creativity or well-being, detox now.

“The Beatles didn’t invent teenagers. I’m not saying we invent our tribe. We just show up to lead them.”

I didn’t invent the choose yourself community. The cubicle job did.

I’ll never say what other people should do. I just say what I like to do. I say what gets me past just getting by.

F) SHOW UP

“Half my blog posts are below average,” Seth said.

I asked if he feels bad.

Intellectually, I understand failure. But it still hurts. It can turn your life upside down. I lost everything more than once. And maybe you’re reading this because you have to… or you’re afraid of losing everything.

“I’m talking about [creating] generous work with good intent… that didn’t work.” That’s the failure we need to show up for.

“I show up,” Seth said.

G) DON’T WRESTLE WITH INFINITY

I didn’t know what that meant.

“I am almost done wrestling with infinity,” he said.

We had half an hour left in the interview. I didn’t interrupt.

I couldn’t.

I was captivated. My mind expands when I’m seconds away from hearing someone’s genius. My vision slows and the inside of my ears soften. It’s like my body is creating room.

“I made the book I wanted.”

“I only printed 5,500 copies of the book. And there’s not going to be a second printing. That’s all there is.”

He doesn’t have to chase. He already broke even and the best part is he chose himself.

“Now there’s not an infinity of upside.”

He didn’t need approval from publishers, his boss, a network… He didn’t write for a bestseller list. He was compelled. And he created.

He made what he wanted to make.  

“Here’s my definition of art,” he said. “Art is when a human being does something that might not work…”

And my whole body nodded.

He went on… changing my mind.

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Photo credit: Pamela Sisson

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Links and Resources:

• Seth’s upcoming book “What Does It Sound Like When You Change Your Mind?”
• Read Seth’s books:

  • The New York Times, BusinessWeek, and Wall Street Journal bestseller, “Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us“

  • A New York Times, USA Today, and Wall Street Journal bestseller, “The Dip: A Little Book That Teaches You When to Quit (and When to Stick)“

  • A New York Times bestseller, “Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?“

  • “Purple Cow, Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable“

  • “All Marketers are Liars: The Underground Classic That Explains How Marketing Really Works–and Why Authenticity Is the Best Marketing of All“

  • “Permission Marketing: Turning Strangers into Friends and Friends into Customers“

  • Join Seth’s newsletter and get his latest blog posts at SethGodin.com
  • Seth’s “alt MBA” course 
  • Follow Seth on Facebook + Twitter

Also by Seth Godin:

• The Icarus Deception“
• “Poke the Box“
• “We Are All Weird“
• “Whatcha Gonna Do with That Duck?“
• “V Is for Vulnerable“
• “Meatball Sundae“
• “Free Prize Inside“
• “Unleashing The Ideavirus“
• “Small Is The New Big“
• “Survival Is Not Enough“
• “The Big Red Fez“

Also Mentioned:

• Thomas Hawk Photography 

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The Ultimate Cheat Sheet For Doing What You Love

I was doing what I hated. Working a job. Listening to a boss yell at me when he had a bad day with his wife.

Working with people that I wouldn’t be friends with unless I had to sit next to them in a cubicle.

Doing things that were the opposite of everything I dreamed about as a boy.

But I didn’t think anything else was possible. School shed that crazy notion for me. My parents doubled down on that. My bosses forced it home. Having a family scared me.

I assumed that being doomed was a normal part of life and only some people were lucky enough to get away with doing what they loved.

I was ready to live a life of misery only for the sake of my kids. I guess so they could then grow up and live a life of misery.

I was wrong.

When I was seven years old I wanted to be an astronaut.

When I was eight, I was really into comic books.

When I was nine, I wrote a play (actually I plagiarized it but my teachers loved it and I kept writing).

When I was ten I wanted to be President of the United States. I read every book about politics.

My 4th grade teacher thought it was strange I was obsessed with reading the transcripts of Nixon’s secret tapes.

When I was 11 I wanted to be a writer just like Judy Blume. I knew every scene in her books by page. All the sex scenes in “Forever” and “Wifey”.

When I was 12 I wanted to be a reporter so I called up everyone I could think of who was famous and tried to interview them.

I ended up getting my political interviews published in a local paper. I even visited the White House and interviewed the Chief Usher.

When I was 13 I was obsessed with computers. I learned to program and every weekend my friends and I would steal computer games from the local game store.

When I was 14 I spent almost all my free time meditating.

For some reason I thought I could learn to astral project and secretly watch girls undressing. But I ended up learning how to meditate and reading about all the different spiritual sources of meditation.

When I was 16, I played chess constantly. I would skip school, sneak to the bus, take it to Princeton and meet up with John Nash (not the mathematician but his son, who was a strong chess master) and we’d play all day. I skipped school constantly to play games.

And when I was 18 I started my first business, a debit card for college students. And local businesses would offer our users discounts.

I programmed all the card machines. I sold all the local restaurants on using our card.

Which led to when I was 19 becoming obsessed to computer programming.

And when I went to graduate school at 21 I realized I hated programming so started writing every day. 3000 words a day. I haven’t yet stopped.

Ever since then I’ve taken the interests above and combined them.

I made websites for entertainment companies. I helped build a chess server on the Internet. I’ve written 18 books.

I’ve studied stocks the way I used to study a game. And right now I’m trying to get press credentials to cover the inauguration.

I tried to make a TV show. I do podcasts where I call up my heroes (including astronauts, writers, artists, game players, and even Judy Blume(!) etc) and interview them.

And I keep writing every day about all the people around me. Like a spy.

DO THIS: (I still do it)

– LIST EVERYTHING you were passionate about from ages 7–20. These aren’t your “true passions”.

That’s a made up phrase. These were simply the things you loved doing as a kid.

– COMBINE THEM. If you loved computers and movies, maybe you will write stories for virtual reality experiences.

If you loved art and being a reporter, call up all of your favorite artists and do a podcast.

– AGE THEM. If you loved games, what do adults who are into games do for money (they make them, they blog about them, they review them, they invest in stocks, they advise investors on startups for games, they use games to improve brain health, and yes, they have fun still playing games).

– FUTURE THEM. If you loved electrical engineering and fast cars, I just saw a help-wanted ad for a “self driving car engineer”.

How can you see the future? You can’t. But that’s what writing down ten ideas a day helps.

If I write down ten ideas a day about how my interest in comics and business might look in the future, then I will fertilize future success.

Which means a lot of bad c***p along the way but that’s how ideas get started and turn into things you try, which turn into things you do, which turn into things you love and are successful at.

There is no one true passion. There are just these basic guidelines:

• Look to your past to discover your future.
• You will do MANY things in your life. There is no “one” thing.
• Combine combine combine.

Do I do what I love now? Yeah, I’m writing an article on a futuristic computer network.

As for tomorrow…I don’t know. I’m going to write my list right now. Every day I write that list or I get stuck and lose myself. I want to live.

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Related Reading: How To Quit Your Job the Right Way

 

 

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Are You Making An Impact On One Person?

(or…”I Am Seth Godin…and Other Strange Things I Learned in Los Angeles”)

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This guy comes up to me outside of the Skylark bookstore in LA and says, “Seth Godin?”

“You’re Seth Godin, right?”

And I say “No” and show him a photo of Seth and me talking together just a few days earlier.

And he says, “He’s always so great about breaking things down.” And I say yes he is.

And he says, “Wait. You’re Al. Al something. You guys have a similar tone.”

And I say thanks.

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Which brings me to two things I learned from Seth in the past week.

He was early for the podcast. Which I’m ashamed of since I was staying right next to the studio.

When I got there he offered to get me water. No guest has ever done that before. I felt bad.

He told me many things that were fascinating.

But one thing stood out.

What is art? And how can you measure if you are doing something “artistic” or valuable in life?

He said, “Ask yourself these two things:”

1) Did you impact AT LEAST ONE person?

Doesn’t have to be more than that. Too many people are chasing likes and validation when all you need to do is contribute to the life of one person.

and

2) Did you learn something from what you did?

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Because not all attempts at art, or attempts at doing something that has impact, that makes a contribution to society, works.

But you can’t feel bad about it. You can’t beat yourself up over it. How will you get better then? What’s the point?

“You have to learn from all attempts at art,” he said

I will add, he also said, “Everything is art”. Not just a painting or a post. Everything you do today.

So: with everything you do today: are you making an impact? Or are you learning?

GO!

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I wrote Seth about the guy who thought I was Seth. I sent the photo and described the conversation.

Seth wrote back a second later:

Love it!

Love it.

Have a great time.

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Related reading: 8 Excuses Why My Excuses Are Awesome

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FINANCIAL FRIDAYS: What’s The Worst Mistakes You Can Make In A Salary Negotiation

I’ve been an employer. And I’ve been an employee. And I’ve been on the board of a staffing agency and advised dozens of other companies on hires. I’ve seen every salary negotiation possible.

99.9% of hires make mistakes in the salary negotiations.

That’s perfectly fine. They have a bigger vision for their careers and they are excited about the job so the tendency is to just agree and get to work. I get it.

But nobody is offended by a good negotiation. If a company is motivated to hire you and you are motivated to work at a company, then a good discussion about the job makes everyone happier.

VERY IMPORTANT: A good salary negotiation is win-win. Both sides get more motivated. The pie gets larger.

MISTAKE #1: Having a smaller list.

It’s not just about the money. The side with the bigger list of terms wins. Because then you can give up the nickels in exchange for the dimes.

Things to be negotiated: vacation time, medical leaves, bonuses, what requirements are in place for promotions, what’s the non-compete, employee ownership (in some cases), potential profit participation, moving expenses, etc.

Again, the bigger list wins.

MISTAKE #2: Negotiating at the wrong time of day.

This is a secret weapon nobody uses.

Carl Icahn, one of the greatest negotiators in business history, has a trick. Let’s borrow his trick from him.

He schedules negotiations late in the day. Then he sleeps all day.

Every human experiences “willpower depletion”. They have the willpower to avoid cake in the morning, but they run out by evening.

If you are offered a job in the morning, say, “This is great. Let me go over it and figure out logistics and family issues and call you back later.” Then SLEEP. Then call back as late in the day as possible to negotiate.

MISTAKE #3: Thinking too short-term.

You’re not going to be there for two weeks and then quit. Ask about the long-term.

What is the potential for the company? What is the potential for someone in your division to rise up in the company? Is the company doing well?

Have a vision for your career path. This directly motivates how much money and other things you might need up front.

MISTAKE #4: Saying Yes too fast

The best negotiation I ever had was when I said, “let me think about it”. And then waiting.

And really thinking about it. Making my list. Doing due diligence. Really thinking if there are other offers. Or potential offers.

Your value on the job market works like value on every other market: supply and demand. Really determine what the supply is for your services and if you can potentially be in demand.

When you first get interest in being made an offer, you have to determine immediately what the supply is. If supply is zero, you put yourself in a bad position.

But regardless, you can act like supply is great by being patient and saying first, “Let me go over all of this. It’s a lot to take in. I’m really grateful for the offer. How about we talk in a day or so.”

Trust me: this is a scary thing to say but it has worked for me at least three different times and I was scared to death each time.

[ RELATED: Using the 5/25 Rule to Learn to Say “No” ]

MISTAKE #5: Bad Math

What are people with comparable skills making in the industry?

What monetary value do you bring to the company (really your salary should be a function of that).

If you were a freelancer or a company doing the work, what would you charge? Your salary + perks should be in the ballpark.

Prepare by doing all the math.

MISTAKE #6: Pretending to be smart

Know-it-alls lose.

Always ask for advice first. “If you were me being offered this job, what would you ask for?”

Or, “You guys are the experts on how one can grow and flourish and bring the most value to your company. What should I ask for and how do you see me growing in the company? Can we outline that out?”

You can say, “Because I like this company a lot and want to accept this, I trust that you will help me figure out the right things to ask for here. Is there anything I’m missing?”

This gives them the chance to negotiate against themselves.

MISTAKE #7: People don’t ask “How”?

If they offer too little or no moving expenses or no vacation or no path to promotion, simply ask: “How?”

For instance: Other people in the industry are making $X. I know that I offer $Y in value. Can you walk me through how I can accept $Z that you are offering?”

They will keep talking and the numbers will change. Trust me on this.

MISTAKE #8: Don’t take advantage if they show weakness

Many people are powerless. But they don’t want to be. Particularly when you tell them.

If you ask for something and they say, “We can’t. This is HR guidelines”. Say, “Hmmm, are you guys powerless to do anything about this?”

Nobody wants to feel powerless [this is a good trick picked up from my Chris Voss podcast]. They will make changes or work this through HR.

MISTAKE #9: Many people don’t mirror.

If they say, “We will offer $100,000 but can’t go a penny higher” repeat back to them, “you can’t go a penny higher.”

They will continue talking. If they don’t then…..

MISTAKE #10: Too much talking.

Be silent until they talk. Nobody likes an uncomfortable silence. Be silent for as long as it takes for them to talk again. Let it be uncomfortable. DO NOT TALK.

MISTAKE #11: Using round numbers.

Assuming you’ve done your homework on what industry standards are and what value you bring and how much you think you should be making, it’s ok to start with a salary number.

But don’t say $100,000.

Say, $103,500.

Something specific. This shows you’ve done the work. Make sure you can back it up to get to that number. Round numbers are negotiated. Specific numbers, backed up by evidence, are not negotiated.

AND DO THIS:

This one was told to me by Chris Voss, the former chief hostage negotiator of the FBI. [In fact, many of these ideas can be found in my podcast with Chris].

Use Your Late Night FM DJ Voice.

Practice it right now. Pretend you’re a late night FM DJ. “And now we’re going to listen to some slooowww jazz.”

“Listen. I’d like to talk about the salary of $103,500 but also we need to talk about the path to bonuses and my potential promotion path within the company.” Late night FM DJ voice.

Do the preparation, have the bigger list, be patient, be silent, think long-term, get them to negotiate against themselves in the various ways described here, and use your late night FM DJ voice.

I promise you the pie will get larger for everyone.

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Finally, and most important: getting fired is a negotiation also. If you are ever terminated, say “No”. The negotiations begin there.

 

Read some of my other Financial Friday posts:

Financial Fridays: Why Today Is The Day You Have To Reinvent Yourself

and…

Financial Fridays: The Stock Market is Bullshit

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Habits Can Make You Stupid And Then Kill You

I’ve written 18 books. I’ve started 20 businesses. I’ve failed at about 17 of them but some have done OK.

I’ve helped raise two beautiful kids. I have a podcast that I love doing.

Sometimes I’m really lazy. Sometimes I do nothing. I go play arcade games or watch TV or sit in a store and drink coffee and play on my iPad.

But to do all of the above I had to work a lot.

Everyone is into habit porn these days. “Do these habits for success.”

I’m guilty of this also. I am a habit pornographer. BUT…be very careful. Don’t blindly do habits. Habits kill. Here’s why:

A) Life goes by too quick.

I like this salmon dish across the street. So a month ago I said, I’m going to just eat this every day and make decision-making easier.

Within a week I was sick of it. I thought I was going to die if I ate another bite of salmon.

If you do the same thing every day, your brain gets used to it. Then the tenth time you do it (the hundredth time) your brain doesn’t even realize it’s doing it.

That’s why people who work the same 9–5 job for 40 years feel like “the years went by so quick!”

Because if you do the same thing every day, the brain shuts down during those activities and it feels like just seconds have gone by when you think about it later.

People write: do these 100 habits every day. Do them at the same time (a morning ritual, an evening ritual, etc).

If you do that, and you blink, you’re going to be 90 years old.

B) You either grow or get worse.

You can’t step in the same river twice. It’s always changing.

One time I said, “I’m going to do 20 pushups a day.” That works for about a week. Then you have to do 21 pushups. Then 25, then 50.

Then pushups are no good. You’ve only worked one set of muscles. You have to change your exercise. You have to change your habits. So then it’s no longer a habit.

You can say, “Exercise every day.” Fine. But don’t do it at the same time each day (see “A”).

C) PLAY versus HABITS

I like to play. But if I play the same game every day, I’ll get bored.

In the past week: air hockey, ping pong, pool, golf, mini-golf, some kind of small car race, skeet bowl, chess, etc.

Every game uses different parts of my brain and body. And I don’t do it at the same time. I do it when I’m not busy with other things. But I do try to spend time every day playing.

We’re not so different from when we were kids. If anything we’re more stupid.

I certainly didn’t call playing baseball a habit when I was a kid.

It was fun and it made me a better person and I play every day.

[ RELATED: All I Want To Do Is Play ]

D) Habits make you stupid.

I used to live in the beautiful country. I would drive and notice the trees and the architecture and the leaves changing.

But then on the 50th time on the same route, I stopped noticing everything. In fact, I’d get to my destination and not even remember anything. “How did I get here?”

If you take a different route each day, you keep noticing things. You keep learning about your surroundings.

The more new things that hit your brain (the less habits), the smarter you get.

Being present in every new moment forces the universe to deliver up a new experience on your plate of life. Devour it, digest it, and you’ll get more.

E) Habits are for insects.

Bees have habits. They do stuff with honey and flowers. They do the same thing each time.

Ants have habits. They build ant farms.

Humans don’t have habits. We have the exact same genes as 40,000 years ago. And, if you take out violent death and infant mortality, humans probably lived longer then.

Why?

Because they had a wider variety of things to eat. They had healthier exercise to get their food.

And they didn’t eat at the same time each day. They ate when they could find food.

Nor did they exercise at the same time. “Exercise” was “let’s get food” which only occurred when they were hungry.

Habits started when we were domesticated by wheat and turned from nomads into farmers to grow the wheat.

Prior to that, variety was the spice of life.

And now, to live long, to be smart, to live healthy, to have fun – variety also should be the spice of life.

So what do we do with all of the habits?

I try to contribute every day. To have impact. To learn and then share.

But that’s not a habit. That’s called being a decent citizen. I’m trying.

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Related: How to be THE LUCKIEST GUY ON THE PLANET in 4 Easy Steps

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Why Can’t Trump and Obama Do This…?

I haven’t watched the news in about six years. But when Trump met Obama I really wanted to see what would happen.

Here’s what I imagined would happen:

I imagined that when they first met they would have a conversation that would go something like this…

Donald: Listen, we’ve never met before and there’s a lot of expectations on this meeting so I think we should do something…monumental…spectacular.

Obama: I hear you, Donald. That’s what I was thinking.

And then they plan it out. The whole time they are supposed to be talking about policy and transitions and other nonsense but really they are like two giggling kids while they plan the most EPIC Presidential photo-op ever.

They let the photographers and reporters in.

Everyone’s expecting the usual BS. “We had a great meeting. We have a lot of respect for each other. Let’s put America first.” etc And then the cameras go off when they shake hands.

That’s what everyone expects. That’s the NATIONAL SCRIPT.

But art happens when you BREAK THE SCRIPT. Speak the truth.

When you show people that the world is bigger than they ever thought. More exciting. More surprising.

Art happens when you do something that turns the brain off and communicates directly with our hearts and our imaginations.

This is what I wanted to see…

What if they reached for each other and just started making out. Passionately kissing and groping each other.

At first the cameras would go and the news anchors would be shocked. At first…

But then, they just keep going. Two minutes, three minutes, five minutes…. Nobody can stop them because it’s the President. They can’t touch him.

Barak puts his hands around Trump’s pants and starts to pull them down. We see tongue, everything.

And finally they stop. Get up. Nod at each other. And Trump says, “I can now safely say…Obama is truly made in America.”

[ RELATED: How To Deal With A Bad News Event ]

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Why can’t people just go off script more. What is life for? Is it for all this make-believe we always do. Because everyone is afraid?

If we took our most high-stakes moments, and had a little fun with them, I bet life would be a lot better for everyone.

I’m sad sometimes. And sometimes I want to be shocked and laugh a bit more.

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Related reading: Is Donald Trump A Socialist?

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Ep. 193: Brian Koppelman – The Way To Start Again Is…

Brian Koppelman and his wife Amy Koppelman saved my life. Many years after he ruined my life.

First off: when he wrote the movie “Rounders” I became obsessed with poker. I went to the same club he played at and played for 365 nights, including the night my first daughter was born (I was there for the birth though!) .

I was an addict. But eventually I stopped in order to start another company. I wish I had never stopped because that other company cost me all of my money at the time.

Then he wrote several of my favorite movies after that. I didn’t even know it was the same director until the first time I interviewed him here.

Now he is writing and producing my favorite TV show, “Billions” on Showtime. About an aggressive hedge fund billionaire going after an equally aggressive US Attorney played by Paul Giamatti.

Brian has been on the podcast several times but there’s always so much more to talk about in terms of creativity and inspiration and how to succeed as an artist / entrepreneur.

Ditto for his wife Amy who has also been on this podcast and written three of my favorite novels. One of which was turned into a movie (“I Smile Back”) starring Sarah Silverman.

But here is how they saved my life.

Awhile back I had a personal emergency. Things were going haywire.

Amy called me and said, “What’s going on?” I told her.

She had me take a photo of every meal I was eating (“I want to make sure you are eating”) and a photo of everyone I was eating with (“I want to make sure you are around people”) and had me write to her every day what was going on in my head (“write!”)

That was one time.

Another time: I lost millions of dollars in a half hour while I was on the set of “Billions” watching it be filmed.

I was called into an emergency board meeting by phone and found out the company was going to be shut down. It was a disaster.

But 90% of how we feel about a situation is determined by our choice of how we will react. Only 10% is based on the situation itself.

And since I was on the set of my favorite TV show being filmed, I decided to enjoy myself. Brian later said to me, “You lost what!? We couldn’t tell at all. You were making jokes, asking questions, and you were the last one to leave.”

I used being on the set of “Billions” to change my reaction to an otherwise horrible event. This allowed me to easily change my 90% reaction into a positive one.

So not only is Brian a creative genius, but he’s a good friend.

I went up to his offices where they are writing season 2 of “Billions” and I had maybe 1,000 more questions about creativity, writing, the arc of his career, and of course, billions of dollars.

But one thing stands out for me.

Everyone always says, as if it were advice that has come down from heaven to all writers: “Write what you know”.

Brian doesn’t agree with this. And this is the secret to his success. And the secret to all the great writers in history.

Stephen King didn’t know what it was like to be a bullied teenage girl with psychic powers when he wrote “Carrie”.

Ernest Hemingway didn’t know what it was like to be an old Cuban man who spent his life fishing.

JK Rowling didn’t know what it would be like to be a boy attending Hogwarts Wizardry School.

Brian Koppelman told me:

“Don’t write what you know, write what fascinates you.” 

This is the key to all good art.

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In this podcast, we also talk about what it feels like to hit a dead-end. To be unsure how to move forward. To be scared that maybe the best was behind us.

How do you move past that. Recreate yourself. Start the work again. Flourish.

I ask. Brian delivers.

 

Links and Resources:

• Listen to Brian Koppelman’s podcast, “The Moment”
• Showtime’s Billions
• My favorite movies produced by Brian Koppelman: Rounders, Ocean’s Thirteen, Solitary Man and The Girlfriend Experience
• Listen to my last interview with Brian and his co-writer/producer David Levien here.
• Follow Brian on Facebook + Twitter + Vine (you have to watch Brian’s vine compilation with 60 million views)

Also mentioned:

• Brian’s interview with his wife, Amy Koppelman
• Listen to my interview with Amy Koppelman, “Write Something That Doesn’t Suck”
• Try Brian’s morning writing routine, “Morning pages”
• Watch Tony Robbin’s Netflix documentary (executively produced by Brian) “I Am Not Your Guru”
• “Awaken The Giant Within” by Tony Robbins
• A Date With Destiny by Tony Robbins
• “My Struggle” by Karl Ove Knausgaard

The post Ep. 193: Brian Koppelman – The Way To Start Again Is… appeared first on Altucher Confidential.

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