A very creative friend was talking to me yesterday about his reticence to promote his work to the world. He said something like "It just doesn't seem right." He's a writer and poet and produces amazing books that people need to experience. I told him I had an instant image of a potter come to mind, as in the picture here, but she's surrounded out of frame by thousands and thousands of beautiful finished pots. Someone walks in and says "What's all this???" She replies, "I'm a potter, not a marketer." Well, my friends, that's the life of too many creative people, doing their art and afraid that promoting it to the world would be unseemly, a form of tooting your own horn. But I pointed out a distinction to my very smart friend. The egotist says "Look at ME!" The enthusiast says "Look at THIS." It’s a small distinction but very important. You can be enthusiastic about your work, immensely excited over it, without a hint of ego crowding in and crowing. As long as you're promoting the product, the good, the service, and not featuring your ego in blazing flashing lights, you're good. And the world will be better off in knowing about your work. So do great stuff. Then tell us all about it!
And by the way, this is the sort of stuff we will be reflecting on at our upcoming Wisdom Weekend Retreats. If you're interested in learning about them, shoot me a line. It's not of course about me, but about an amazing time together exploring world wisdom about success, happiness, change, and other vital life issues.
