Greetings, talented and creative people!

This article contains a hidden reference and finding it and commenting upon it may result in me detecting some skilled detectives. And appreciating their efforts in ways I can.

The new generation of platforms definitely is something great for artists who now can find audience much easier than before. Some people may even find enough support to just create and live in ways they dreamed of.

But we should always remember it is not a thing to happen with a click or two. Success has prerequisites.

I recently started filling my Patreon page and I posted a motivational entry that should serve as the beginning of a lengthy discussion on the topic of hard work. I will try to do so here and on other social networks as well. And I will use the same ant buddy of mine to help me illustrate.

Somebody who you will immediately recognize as both talented and successful, said this:

'Talent is cheaper than table salt. What separates the talented individual from the successful one is a lot of hard work.'

― Stephen King

Even though horror is not my favorite genre, I admire sai King's skills and open-mindedness.

His words look simple enough to understand. But the difficult thing in the creative field is to know if the work we're doing works at all.

In my case I have tried a lot of things. I have been patient enough to see some results. Sometimes, I have been lucky enough to see even more results as I have pressed on. But I have also made mistakes. As young, I grew tired of not being able to get to a certain level soon enough, not realizing the proportions, the actual value of momentum.

Only recently I got the whole idea of how I should also consider my momentum a precious resource. Because it takes a lot of hard work to build it from scratch. And after it gets going, it requires only occasional pushes and changes in direction (those would logically get harder with time). But if you stop the pushing altogether, the momentum would stop as well and you will be back to square one. Time and efforts somehow wasted.

So my advice number one here is:

Learn to recognize momentum and keep pushing. The beginning was the hardest part. Until you need to exercise control and change the direction of a huge force. But I wish you all discover that force first.

Now about that Work Hard vs Work Smart thing we've heard. Learn more about the point of the phrase first, before internalizing it in a possibly wrong way.

It does not mean be lazy, thing will come easy. You may just look up articles on the topic and you will see people would recommend doing both - working hard and smart at the same time.

In terms of momentum, smart would mean try to plan the direction and try to see the curves ahead. Or the bumps and the hills. Have a plan if you would rather go around, or up, or under and what will it cost you.

Do not push all the time. As in art, take a step back from time to time and look on the whole picture. The more you do it before taking critical actions, the better.

Also, listen to other people's opinions. Even those of close persons. Then decide for yourself which parts of which opinions were useful to you.

I can think of a lot more quotes to go with those thoughts but I will leave you some space first.

Don't worry, I will be back on it.

It's your turn now.