Stop Waiting to Be Discovered

MTYL Memo #13: Your own validation has to come first—if you want it to last.

Stop waiting for others to discover you. You’ve got to be the one to discover yourself—enough at least to show up. To put your good work out into the world, so that others can do things like buy your books and creative works, work with you, appoint you to boards, or ask you to join their endeavor.

A friend and I were talking about what makes art “art.” Anyone can put paint on canvas, after all.

But take someone like the 20th-century abstract painter Mark Rothko. His 1961 “Orange, Red, Yellow” piece sold at auction in May 2012 for $86.9 million.

If Rothko hadn’t seen his creations as worthwhile enough or ready enough to share with the world, they wouldn’t have been discoverable. No one else would have been able to say, “You know, this guy just might be onto something here.”

Especially for conscientious, principled, and sometimes underestimating dreamers: You’ve got to believe that what you offer is worthwhile, that you do really good work, and that no random “authority figure” needs to give you permission to share your thing or take it to the next level.

Being fueled by that kind of external validation will be bad for your soul in the same way that the wrong kind of fuel ruins a car engine.

Be your own discoverer. Wondering how? Do more of this.

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