The Creative Act: A Way of Being by Rick Rubin

Rick Rubin offers a number of valuable insights and perspectives for entrepreneurs in his book “The Creative Act: A Way of Being.”

The Creative Act: A Way of Being by Rick Rubin

Rick Rubin started out as a musician and founded Def Jam Recordings, where he focused on producing albums with an eclectic mix of Rap and Rock artists. Bill Gurley recommended Rubin’s podcast, “Tetragrammaton,” and I listened to several. I learned a lot from his interview with Dr. Jay Bhattacharya and was impressed by the quality and thoroughness of his questions. I saw that he had written a book on “The Creative Act: A Way of Being.” I read it and came away inspired by several of his insights which led me to write this post.

Each of us has a vessel

Each of us has a vessel that holds our thoughts, feelings, dreams, and experiences in the world. Unlike rain directly filling a barrel, new information enters the vessel through our unique filter set, which does not let everything through or capture what does faithfully. […] I think of a creative act as taking the sum of our vessel’s contents as potential material, selecting elements that seem useful or significant in the moment, and re-presenting them.
Rick Rubin in The Creative Act: A Way of Being

I find Rubin’s three metaphors of input filter, vessel, and creativity as selecting elements and remixing them useful. I think this model applies as much to entrepreneurs as to artists. Reading allows me to leverage other experiences, especially when I write about what I have read or try to put it into practice.

Living life as an artist is a practice; this is also true for entrepreneurs

“Living life as an artist is a practice. You can engage in the practice or not. It makes no sense to say you’re not good at it. It’s like saying, “I’m not good at being a monk.” You either live as a monk or not. We tend to think of the artist’s work as the output. The artist’s real work is a way of being in the world.”
Rick Rubin in The Creative Act: A Way of Being

I like Rubin’s perspective that an artist is engaged in a practice, a way of being in the world. In “Innovation and Entrepreneurship” Peter Drucker observes, “Entrepreneurship is neither a science nor an art. It is a practice.” In “The Great Crossover,” Dan Sullivan offers the following insight on entrepreneurial mindset:

“Successful entrepreneurs differ from other people–not in their abilities but in their mindset. They have internalized two fundamental commitments, by making these two decisions:

Decision 1: To depend entirely on their own abilities for their financial security, because they realize that the only security is the security they create themselves.

Decision 2: To expect opportunity only by creating value for others, because they understand that this is the only unlimited source of economic opportunity.”

Dan Sullivan in “The Great Crossover“

I agree with Dan Sullivan’s assessment that the key decision you make as an entrepreneur is to commit to quid pro quo.

Capture Thoughts of the Moment

“There’s great wisdom in transitional realms between wakefulness and sleep. Right before you fall asleep, what thoughts and ideas come to you? How do you feel when you wake from a dream? […] Keeping a dream journal might be of use. Place a pen and paper next to the bed, and as soon as you wake up, begin writing immediately with as much detail as possible before doing anything else.”
Rick Rubin in The Creative Act: A Way of Being

I adopted this practice a while ago and will capture thoughts as I start to fall asleep or when I wake up. I don’t write down dreams normally but I often wake up with ideas.

“Dreaming is neither consistently wise nor consistently useless. The dream’s power lies in the fact that is it so different a mode of thought–that it supplements and enriches what we’ve already done while awake.”
Deidre Barrett in “The Committee of Sleep“

In addition to the dream state there is hypnagogia or the act of falling asleep and the hypnopompic state of rational cognition and wakefulness after awakening. All three states can enable insight and creative solutions to problems. I keep a pad of paper by my bed to capture thoughts that occur as I am falling asleep or immediately after I have awakened. Sometimes I will remember something I should have accomplished–or need to do tomorrow–as I am falling asleep. Writing it down allows me to relax knowing I have captured it. Other times I will wake up with an new approach to a problem or situation and write it down so that it survives my morning routine until I am ready to put it into practice.

Doubt an Idea, Don’t Doubt Yourself

“While the emotional undercurrents of self-doubt can serve the art, they can also interfere with the creative process. Beginning a work, completing a work, and sharing a work are all key moments where many of us become stuck. How do we move forward, considering the stories we tell ourselves? One of the best strategies is to lower the stakes. […]

All art is a work in progress. It’s helpful to see the piece we’re working on as an experiment. One in which we can’t predict the outcome. Whatever the result, we will receive useful information that will benefit the next experiment. […]

It’s worth noting the distinction between doubting the work and doubting yourself. An example of doubting the work would be, “I don’t know if my song is as good as it can be.” Doubting yourself might sound like, “I can’t write a good song.” These statements are worlds apart, both in accuracy and in impact on the nervous system. Doubting yourself can lead to a sense of hopelessness, of not being inherently fit to take on the task at hand. All or nothing thinking is a nonstarter. However, doubting the quality of your work might, at times, help to improve it. You can doubt your way to excellence.”

Rick Rubin in The Creative Act: A Way of Being

I think the distinction between doubting an idea and doubting yourself is a critical one. There is a world of difference between saying, “this idea is not working” and “I cannot come up with good ideas.” I think it’s legitimate to tell yourself, “I need better methods or better habits or a better approach,” which is different from “I am no good” or “I won’t be able to succeed.”

Learn From Your Scars

“In Japanese pottery, there’s an artful form of repair called kintsugi. When a piece of ceramic pottery breaks, rather than trying to restore it to its original condition, the artisan accentuates the fault by using gold to fill the crack. This beautifully draws attention to where the work was broken, creating a golden vein. Instead of the flaw diminishing the work, it becomes a focal point, an area of both physical and aesthetic strength. The scar also tells the story of the piece, chronicling its past experience.”
Rick Rubin in The Creative Act: A Way of Being

Learning from setbacks is part of an anti-fragile approach. There is a Latin proverb, “haec quae nocent docent.” It means those things which hurt teach. Human scar tissue is not as strong or flexible as regular skin and does not contain hair follicles or sweat glands, but it grows more quickly and minimizes the time you have an open wound. I think the challenge for entrepreneurs is to take immediate action to minimize damage and then continue learning and improving their methods.

Uncover Your Assumptions and Test Them

“It’s helpful to remember that when you throw away an old playbook, you still get to keep the skills you learned along the way. These hard-earned abilities transcend rules. They’re yours to keep. Imagine what can arise when you overlay an entirely new set of materials and instructions over your accumulated expertise. As you move away from familiar rules, you may bump up against more hidden rules that have been guiding you all along, without your knowledge. Once recognized, these rules may be released or used with more intention. Any rule is worth testing, be it conscious or unconscious. Challenge your assumptions and methods. You might find a better way. And even if it’s not better, you’ll learn from the experience. All of these experiments are like free throws. You have nothing to lose.”
Rick Rubin in The Creative Act: A Way of Being

The key is to document your playbook so you can continue to improve it. You may throw a play away but I don’t see throwing away the entire playbook.

“If several directions seem captivating, consider crafting more than one experiment at a time. Working on several often brings about a healthy sense of detachment.”
Rick Rubin in The Creative Act: A Way of Being

Sometimes one approach seems the most promising, but it never hurts to outline several potential approaches. Exploring two or three alternatives in parallel can give you more resilience. At a minimum, preparing a Plan B and a Plan C in advance means you are less likely to get locked into an approach that’s not working.

Be Patient With Yourself But Get Started

“Crafting contains a paradox. To create our best work, we are patient and avoid rushing the process, while at the same time we work quickly without delay.”
Rick Rubin in The Creative Act: A Way of Being

I think you have to be patient with yourself but work when you see a path forward. Picasso is credited with the quote, “inspiration exists, but it must find you working.” This is the secret to the Pomodoro technique and other time-boxing methods: you force yourself to get started, and that can unlock the inspiration to continue.

“If you’re holding a center puzzle piece in your hand and staring at an empty tabletop, it’s difficult to determine where to place it. If all of the puzzle is complete except for that one piece, then you know exactly where it goes. The same is generally true of art. The more of the work you can see, the easier it becomes to gracefully place the final details clearly where they belong.”
Rick Rubin in The Creative Act: A Way of Being

I think we imagine the key elements of a design and capture them in rough outlines, sketches, and draft form before we start implementing in detail. In solving a problem or completing a puzzle it’s more common to work form the outside in, from the constraints or the edge pieces, but with a design I think you normally start with the core ideas. It’s useful to be able to work both top-down, from the general to the specific, as well as bottom up, collecting “dots” or details to see what patterns you can discern.

SKMurphy Take

I got a lot out of this book and have filled this post with quite a few long quotes from it as a results. Although Rubin’s audience is artists, I found a lot of what he wrote applied equally well to the challenges that entrepreneurs face.

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The Creative Act: A Way of Being by Rick Rubin