By Michael McDonough
1. Talent is one-third of the success
equation.
Talent is important in any profession, but it is no guarantee of
success. Hard work and luck are equally important. Hard work means
self-discipline and sacrifice. Luck means, among other things,
access to power, whether it is social contacts or money or timing.
In fact, if you are not very talented, you can still succeed by
emphasizing the other two. If you think I am wrong, just look
around.
2. 95 percent of any creative profession is shit
work.
Only 5 percent is actually, in some simplistic way, fun. In school
that is what you focus on; it is 100 percent fun. Tick-tock. In
real life, most of the time there is paper work, drafting boring
stuff, fact-checking, negotiating, selling, collecting money,
paying taxes, and so forth. If you dont learn to love the boring,
aggravating, and stupid parts of your profession and perform them
with diligence and care, you will never succeed.
3. If everything is equally important, then nothing is very
important.
You hear a lot about details, from Dont sweat the details to
God is in the details. Both are true, but with a very important
explanation: hierarchy. You must decide what is important, and then
attend to it first and foremost. Everything is important, yes. But
not everything is equally important. A very successful real estate
person taught me this. He told me, Watch King Rat. Youll get
it.
4. Dont over-think a problem.
One time when I was in graduate school, the late, great Steven
Izenour said to me, after only a week or so into a ten-week
problem, OK, you solved it. Now draw it up. Every other critic I
ever had always tried to complicate and prolong a problem when, in
fact, it had already been solved. Designers are obsessive by
nature. This was a revelation. Sometimes you just hit it. The thing
is done. Move on.
5. Start with what you know; then remove the
unknowns.
In design this means draw what you know. Start by putting down
what you already know and already understand. If you are designing
a chair, for example, you know that humans are of predictable
height. The seat height, the angle of repose, and the loading
requirements can at least be approximated. So draw them. Most
students panic when faced with something they do not know and
cannot control. Forget about it. Begin at the beginning. Then work
on each unknown, solving and removing them one at a time. It is the
most important rule of design. In Zen it is expressed as Be where
you are. It works.
6. Dont forget your goal.
Definition of a fanatic: Someone who redoubles his effort after
forgetting his goal. Students and young designers often approach a
problem with insight and brilliance, and subsequently let it slip
away in confusion, fear and wasted effort. They forget their goals,
and make up new ones as they go along. Original thought is a kind
of gift from the gods. Artists know this. Hold the moment, they
say. Honor it. Get your idea down on a slip of paper and tape it
up in front of you.
7. When you throw your weight around, you usually fall off
balance.
Overconfidence is as bad as no confidence. Be humble in approaching
problems. Realize and accept your ignorance, then work diligently
to educate yourself out of it. Ask questions. Power the power to
create things and impose them on the world is a privilege. Do not
abuse it, do not underestimate its difficulty, or it will come
around and bite you on the ass. The great Karmic wheel, however
slowly, turns.
8. The road to hell is paved with good intentions; or, no
good deed goes unpunished.
The world is not set up to facilitate the best any more than it is
set up to facilitate the worst. It doesnt depend on brilliance or
innovation because if it did, the system would be unpredictable. It
requires averages and predictables. So, good deeds and brilliant
ideas go against the grain of the social contract almost by
definition. They will be challenged and will require enormous
effort to succeed. Most fail. Expect to work hard, expect to fail a
few times, and expect to be rejected. Our work is like martial arts
or military strategy: Never underestimate your opponent. If you
believe in excellence, your opponent will pretty much be
everything.
9. It all comes down to output.
No matter how cool your computer rendering is, no matter how
brilliant your essay is, no matter how fabulous your whatever is,
if you cant output it, distribute it, and make it known, it
basically doesnt exist. Orient yourself to output. Schedule
output. Output, output, output. Show Me The Output.
10. The rest of the world counts.
If you hope to accomplish anything, you will inevitably need all of
the people you hated in high school. I once attended a very
prestigious design school where the idea was If you are here, you
are so important, the rest of the world doesnt count. Not a
single person from that school that I know of has ever been really
successful outside of school. In fact, most are the kind of
mid-level management drones and hacks they so despised as students.
A suit does not make you a genius. No matter how good your design
is, somebody has to construct or manufacture it. Somebody has to
insure it. Somebody has to buy it. Respect those people. You need
them. Big time.
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