Draw the art you want to see, start the business you want to run, play the music you want to hear, write the books you want to read, build the products you want to use – do the work you want to see done.

Be curious about the world in which you live. Look things up. Chase down every reference. Go deeper than anybody else--that's how you'll get ahead.

It's often what an artist chooses to leave out that makes the art interesting.

To be on brand is to be 100% certain of who you are and what you do, and certainly, in art and in life, is not only completely overrated, it is also a roadblock to discovery. Uncertainty is the very thing that art thrives on.

If you ever find that you're the most talented person in the room, you need to find another room.

Read deeply. Stay open. Continue to wonder.

When you first get started, there's usually a big gap between what you are and what you want to be. If I'd waited to know who I was or what I was about before I started being creative, well I'd still be sitting around trying to figure myself out instead of making things. In my experience, it's in the act of making things and doing our work that we figure out who we are.

In this age of information abundance and overload, those who get ahead will be the folks who figure out what to leave out so they can concentrate on what's really important to them. Nothing is more paralyzing than the idea of limitless possibilities. The idea that you can do anything is absolutely terrifying.

So: Copy your heroes. Examine where you fall short. What's in there that makes you different? That's what you should amplify and transform into your own work.