Be Crazy…

I’m an artist: I write books.  I launch entrepreneurial enterprises.  That means I’m crazy.

I plan things. Strategize. Set goals. Create deadlines.  Then, the universe happens.  And my best-laid plans get blown all to hell.

Just like your plans do for you…

You have dry cleaning to pick up, kids that need to be taken somewhere, an elderly parent needing care, or any one of a million other distractions.

But they aren’t really distractions...

They’re your test from the universe – to find out how bad you really want – what you so desperately claim you do.

You can wait for the perfect time, when you’re ready, with the ideal environment, when you have enough money, and the situation is perfect.  But that only happens on TV.  In the real world, the only perfect situation is now.

Oh, and it might not work...

The business may fail.  The play gets panned by the critics.  You can’t find investors.

So what?  That’s round one.  Or ten.

Yes, you have to be crazy to be an entrepreneur.  There is simply no way to foreseen the forces that will shape, distort, and impact your success. But you have to take your best shot anyway.  Because like Mark Cuban says, you only have to be right once.

Yes, you have to be crazy to be a writer.  Hovering over the keyboard, pounding out words that might or might not get sold.  Hell, might or might not even get read by anyone other than your mother.

Just like it’s crazy to be a sculptor, choreographer, opera composer, dancer, or artist of any kind.  You will face the ultimate test, the ultimate critic: Yourself.

Be rational.  Study the odds.  But don’t let them deter you.  Sometimes you have to override logic, reasoning, and the advice of the crowd.  You innovate/design/create/write because you can’t live with yourself if you don’t innovate/design/create/write.

And know when you finally take the plunge, the universe will laugh at your best-laid plans.  And let you know how crazy they are.  That’s the test, to see if you really are crazy enough to achieve this daunting task.

Be crazy.

-RG