Getting 1% better every day
Start by honouring your craft
There’s always been that sense of admiration and respect for people who have invested tens of thousands of hours into making one thing really well. These grandmasters have become better every day, because they take real care. Everyone else might produce a hack out of cheap material which does not last a lifetime, but a craftsperson is someone who honours their work. We could respect that.
A craftsman might be a carpenter specialised in aged wood or a visual artist. A craftsman is, for sure, a blacksmith, but might as well be a software architect or a digital creative writer. Someone to look up to.
Today we have entered a new age of craftmanship. A whole new generation of craftspeople was born and they all want to ship work that sells great. But are we truly willing to put in the work to grow and get 1% better every day when practising our craft for tens of thousands of hours? Are we ready to show up with vulnerability, consistency and the commitment to self in order to get better every single day?
Just because it's not in a crafts fair doesn't mean it didn't demand craft.
- Seth Godin
Learning to see doing business as a craft to be honoured feels key. One where we can see craft in the way a new business is started. Not to be scaled up immediately to make money, but to see a business as the flourishing ground of practising. How a newsletter is designed and written, how a connection to a human being is made, how the community is nourished. How a website is coded. How a sale is made. How a defect or failure is handled.
A businessperson is a craftsperson who might think deeply about the way she or he inspires, connects and communicates with people. It is not for the short run. It is for life, because it requires you to start honouring your craft!
People will feel that and they will start telling your story to others.