Quote - Ira Glass
I am reading The Passionate Photographer: Ten Steps Toward Becoming Great by Steve Simon and came across a quote from Ira Glass about honing your skills that I had heard a few years ago which hit me like a truck...
"You've got to get rid of a lot of crap before you're going to get anything that's special. You don't want to be making mediocre stuff. There's a gap for the first couple years that you're making stuff. What you're making isn't so good. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is good enough that you can tell what you're making is kind of a disappointment to you. A lot of people at that point, they quit. The thing I would say to you with all my heart is that most everybody I know who does interesting, creative work, went through a phase of years where they had really good taste, they could tell what they were making wasn't as good as they wanted it to be. They knew it fell short. Everybody goes through that. If you're going through it right now, or if you're just starting off and you're entering into that phase, you've got to know its totally normal and the most important thing you could do is a lot of work. Do a huge volume of work because it's only by actually going through a volume of work that you're actually going to catch up and close that gap."
- Ira Glass
Such an amazing quote.