In his book, Real Artists Don’t Starve: Timeless Strategies for Thriving in the New Creative Age, Jeff Goins discusses how we can apply prudent strategies in positioning ourselves for thriving in our chosen field of craft.

These are some of my favorite concepts and takeaways from reading the book.

Chapter 7, Collaborate with Others

In this chapter, Jeff discusses the importance of collaborating with others for thriving artists. He offers the following recommendations for us to think about:

• While some successful geniuses chose to work alone, many did their best work when collaborating with others. The new definition of an artist is a visionary who brings people and resources together to create opportunities for our work to flourish. Thus, our success is closely related to our ability to work well with others.
• Creative output is often a slow and grueling endeavor and, at times, can feel discouraging. However, during those painful moments, we need people to correct our path. Furthermore, creativity works best when it originates from a small community circle instead of a solitary invention.
• Sometimes we need more than just a loose collective of peers to help us succeed. For those occasions, we might need a more formal group of coworkers or business partners to help us realize our vision. Hire professional help, coordinate, and integrate their work with ours is the job of an artist.
• If we want to do world-changing creative work, we might need to accept the reality that we likely will not be able to do it alone. So it is the thriving artist’s job to cultivate the circles of collaboration and create a sense of accountability that could drive everyone in the circle to create better work.

In summary, “The Starving Artist always works alone. The Thriving Artist collaborates with others.”

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