Debbie Millman

Ambition?

Addiction to attainment?

We're living in a culture now obsessed with achievement, and we measure that success with metrics, likes, views, followers, awards, trophies, sales, and we celebrate the hustle.

We glorify the grind, and we equate visibility with value.

Now, after 20 years of interviewing more than 1,000 people, I've come to believe that something else is at play.

When I look at the creative people I admire most, I see people answering a calling, a calling that says, create, shape, build, imagine, express, not necessarily to be seen, but to be.

What if the actual reward is not accomplishment but the act of creating?

Think about it.

The finished products and trappings of creative accomplishment are often seen as the goal.

And if we haven't yet reached mastery, we're told we have to fake it until we make it.

Pretend.

But I don't think people should have to fake anything.

Instead, I'd rather make it until I make it.

You see, I believe that the act of making

is like oxygen.

When the making stops, it becomes hard to breathe.

Now, I admit, I still struggle with this, I crave recognition, I still measure myself by external markers of success, and I'm still racing towards multiple finish lines.

But I'm learning, albeit slowly, that these moments will never, ever be enough.

They can't be, because in the end, they represent a certain scarcity, while making is the actual abundance.

Several years ago, I interviewed David Lee Roth,