Austin Kleon

We got all this stuff in our brain all the time.

Very few of us take the time to sit down and try to make something of it.

I think that's what the analog desk does.

It gives me, that's where I go to make something of what's swirling inside me.

And then when I leave the analog desk, I got something to show people.

Then I have something to share.

I have something to say, hey, I made this thing.

What do you think?

And I think that for the leader, it's an interesting word, leading, because I've never really felt that way.

But there's a sense that

the leading that happens i think in my work is that something's leading me that i'm on the trail of things i have a sense for what seems urgent and i pay really close attention and then i'm on the trail and then what i do really well i think as i send back dispatches

you know, like Lewis and Clark or something, you know, I send people dispatches of what kind of trail I'm following.

That's kind of the leading that happens here.

But I think the other thing about, you know, leading people is that people just want to watch someone who's activated.

You know, the more I study people and I study

The people who are out there doing really interesting things, there's a band called Sonic Youth and their bass player's name is Kim Gordon.

And she said, you know, people will pay every night to show up and see somebody believe in themselves.

And I've always loved that.

You know, my friend Hugh McLeod has a cartoon that says the market for something to believe in is infinite.

You know, the world is full of people that are kind of like, I don't know, they're just kind of like doing their thing.