illustration from Anne Taintor "making smart people smile since 1985"This eighth chapter of 12 Secrets of Highly Creative Women (which I'm reading as part of the book blogging group, The Next Chapter) was probably the least helpful to me so far. I think that making this decision on whether to partner up with other or create and pursue alliances is something that might be in the future, but doesn't apply too much to me at the moment.
In the chapter there is a pretty extensive self-assessment to do around the issues of what kind of partner you are, your managing style, your collaboration style, etc. And after doing that, I've realized that being on my own with what I'm doing now is the right choice for me. At least for now.
But as the author, Gail McMeekin says "Working closely with others on a creative project expands the available net of ideas, skills and experience." I've absolutely found this to be true on the collaborative projects I've worked on in the past, and definitely recognize the value of this idea.
But on the other hand, my favorite quote from the chapter is "Your playing small serves no one." - Marianne Williamson.
So perhaps more thinking on this subject of expanding my notions of what I'm doing, and whether or not I need to involve more partners or alliances is achieving my goals.
As McMeekin says "In this age of the Internet, you don't have to work alone, unless you want to."
6 comments:
My husband just read to me a sentence out of a book he is reading which said (paraphrase) "Ten minutes a day of social conversation is as good as working a crossword puzzle." Perhaps ten minutes a day of partnership is enough!
I have always wanted to do a rather large collabrative project with someone, but the one person I thought might be *it* turned out to be schizo....
I enjoy some class atmospheres, where I can share quietly and have the GOOD GROUP.
It is a difficult choice to make, and more difficult to find the right fit of people. When you Do however, it is wonderful.
It appears, from what I have experienced, that a lot of artists are afraid to partner up on work. Maybe it is a fear of intellectual property theft. I don't know.
Just rambling.....
Sounds like the self-assessment was really useful to you - sometimes confirming where we are is a good thing.
I missed this weeks chapter. I love the quote you picked out by Marianne Williamson, it's great. Got a big smile from the pic as well:)
It's such a powerful thing when we know that where are is right where we're meant to be.
And it will be interesting to see where your 'on the other hand' leads you!
I finally decided I was done with the book. I think if I'd read it years ago there would have been more new insights for me, but as it was it was just a sort of pleasant recap of a lot of things I already knew about myself or about how "process" works. Not that I'm in any way the master of my own process, just that this book hasn't been as inspiring for me as many others I've read which were more the right book at the right time.
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