Neil Gaiman is an author who has over eight million Goodreads ratings, at an average rating of 4.15 out of 5. He is very, very good at his craft.
I came across a quote of his recently:
"The biggest problem of success is that the world conspires to stop you doing the thing that you do, because you are successful. There was a day when I looked up and realised that I had become someone who professionally replied to email, and who wrote as a hobby."
Neil is pointing to a strange phenomenon here.
The better you get at your craft, the more the world wants to pull you away from it.
Applied in a work context, this could look like being the one that does something and then one day becoming the one who manages others who now do the thing you once did.
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Below are some things I know and have learned about some of my heroes and their respective crafts. Each are artists in their own way.
Seth Godin has been publishing a blog post every single day for over 20 years.
I once heard Questlove say that one of his techniques to stay sharp as a DJ, is to challenge himself everyday to discover 100 songs he hasn't heard before, and then sort where they should go.
There's a scene 40 minutes into American Symphony, where you see Jon Batiste visiting a piano teacher for a lesson. Jon is in his mid-30s and he mentions first coming to this teacher when he was 18. Even as a highly accomplished musician, Jon was still taking lessons.
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What's your craft?
What's the thing you do that you'd keep doing even if no one was watching and no one was paying you to do?
A pencil is only useful if it's sharp.
Stay sharp. Keep doing your craft.
