Lead Like an Artist!

Seek inspiration from life, from pain, from joy, from failures and success, from traveling beyond your comfort zone to see what else you might find.

Go within, quiet the noise without, get lost in your own inner world, love the life you build there and respect the guidance you receive there by listening and following it.

Know your purpose to serve the greater good, to inspire, to uplift, to call attention to, to advocate for, to help others see and imagine something else.

Look at information with curiosity, with playfulness, with scrutiny and openness until you feel a message forming that wants to be shared.

Find what you can use and repurpose, what you might bring together in new ways until it clicks in harmony and takes on new meaning.

See the work within the bigger picture, understand how it plugs into and enhances the bigger body of work, what unique contribution it adds to the conversation.

Get your hands dirty, get in the mess, break things and put them back together, create an environment where you can explore with such wild abandonment.

Be pulled by your vision, allow yourself to be the fool, to go into the unknown, to make others question your sanity and yet wait on bated breath to see what you do.

Build your team around your excitement, respecting their expertise, allowing them to expand the vision and co-create it as you go on the adventure together.

Learn what you need to learn to make the vision happen, from other people, from books, from watching and observing and trying new things with courage.

Persevere through the challenges, the failures, the stuck moments, don’t be afraid to go back to the drawing board, erase, and recalculate knowing it’s a part of the process.

Let it breathe, know when to walk away, when to work on something else for a bit, and when to come back with fresh eyes, ideas, and perspectives.

Know when it’s done, when it has achieved what it is meant to without needing to be perfect to yourself or anyone else.

Put it out there to be celebrated, to make an impact, to be discussed and analyzed, to influence and take on a life of its own.

Integrate what emerged within and without into the next creation, building, expanding, enhancing, and dreaming bigger.

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Thank you for reading this credo I have been working on! 

I believe artists are innate leaders, always on the forefront of progress.  I challenge myself and my fellow artists to more fully encompass that role and I challenge others to recognize and invite such contributions.  The work of HowDoodle is evolving with this as a unifying philosophy underpinning the programs and products I am developing for both individuals and companies.  

I'm still playing with it and will probably make something with it soon!  In the meantime, I would love to hear:

→ What stood out for you?  Let me know in the comments below!