“Art is the elimination of the unnecessary.” – Pablo Picasso, Born Oct. 25, 1881.
We can all use a little more of Pablo's kind of art in our lives and businesses.
Are you getting bogged down on a project because of how you imagine it has to be?
Look at it. Break it into a list of pieces that NEED to be there for it to be functional at a minimum.
Eliminate everything else.
That is your new goal – your new definition of “done”.
All the stuff you cut? That stuff you loved and wanted because it was cool or cute or funny or clever – save it for future improvements IF the project PROVES a success when offered at the minimal functional level.
A lot of times, you'll find that you never needed that fat and fluff. What you needed was to trim it and distill it. Make it minimal and elegant and sharp in its simplicity.
And you can skip the wasted effort you would have spent “improving” something the audience doesn't feel is needed.
Instead, invest that into your next project, focusing only on what is strictly necessary.
Eliminate everything else.
That's the secret to speedy productivity.
IMPORTANT NOTE: I'm not saying to half-ass anything, or only ever put in a minimal effort. Be excellent. Just don't waste your time on unnecessary fluff that you don't really need to put your excellence on the market right now.
Think of Picasso, who had a famous “blue period” where all his works were done in shades of blue. It was all he could afford when it came to supplies. But he used the color blue like a master, making works of great skill and beauty, despite an incomplete palette.
It turns out that he didn’t NEED a dazzling array of color to express what he wanted to, and to please the audience for his work.
Minimalism in execution does NOT mean short-changing the work or the customer…
So: If you're waffling and wallowing in irrelevant details, and because of it, you're keeping your core awesome unique whatever-it-is away from people. Quit it. Get it out there.
Be arty like that. Be Picasso.
Thanks again Colin. Love this. Your whole mindset and approach is helping me break the old ossified way of thinking about sales, marketing and content creation. Don’t worry about polish when the ideas and inspiration are there – and people are enjoying and benefiting from what you do. Inspired me to crack on and get my next product out there. Really appreciated!