If you think too much about how your creative work is going to be received, your work will change.
You will start to steer yourself toward what you think others want instead of what you feel compelled to create.
This is a mistake.
The value of your creative work is rooted in your unique perspective.
When you start creating from the perspective of what others may or may not like, you lose sight of what makes your work special.
You are what makes your work special.
The values, vision, and aesthetic choices that you bring to your work are what make it your work.
Once you are influenced by what you think others prefer, your work begins to lose its character.
Make the art that you are compelled to make and your art will be compelling.
Put something new and special and strange into the world.
Show us what you see and let it change our perspective.
We do not need more of what we already like.
We need more of you.
When faced with a goal or a task that seems impossible, it is a leader’s job to see past all of the obstacles, all of the reasons it cannot be done, and to provide the vision necessary for others to see optimistically into the future.
A leader shares his or her vision of success with others so that they, too, believe that success is possible.
A leader gives hope where there was none before.
A leader does not use a lack of time, resources, or preparation as an excuse to fail because a leader sets his or her team up for success in spite of limitations, restrictions, or setbacks.
A leader does not say that his or her team is not ready for a mission. A leader ensures that they are.
It is exactly the moments of impossibility, of hopelessness, and of inevitable defeat that define a leader, for it it is in these moments that leadership manifests.
Meditations on God 