Merlin Mann over at 43folders posted this YouTube video of Ira Glass.  It’s one in a series in which Ira advises people who want to get into storytelling and television.

In all honesty I haven’t watched them all.  I don’t feel that I have to.  Nothing can top the simple but crucial advice he gives in this one.  You can replace “television” with any art form and it applies.  I wish, oh how I wish, someone I respected and admired said these words to me when I was a kid and I truly absorbed their meaning.  For years, my desire to be creative was constantly being squashed by the dread of the inevitable dissatisfaction I would feel with what I produced.

I remember one of the many times in high-school when I was fustrated that I couldn’t get what I saw in my head out onto the paper, my art-teacher told me to “stop being arrogant. Only an idiot expects to be great at art right out of the gate.” That sentiment and what Ira has to say is somewhere in the same neighborhood, but Ira presents the idea in a much more accessable, postitive, and sympathetic manner.

For anyone who wants to do something creative as a profession, watch this video.  And then pass it on to as many people as you can.

Link to YouTube video via 43folders