WORK LESS WEDNESDAY
WLW #133
🎨 1. What I Learned From Dale Chihuly
This week I’ve been studying the work of Dale Chihuly.
He’s known for his sculptural blown glass pieces.
You may have seen his work before, he’s pretty famous.
But, I want to talk about HOW Dale Chihuly became Dale Chihuly.
In his early career, Dale was an above average glass artist, but he wasn’t a world famous artist like he his now.
So what happened?
“In 1976, while Chihuly was in England, he was involved in a head-on car accident that propelled him through the windshield.
His face was severely cut by glass and he was blinded in his left eye.”
This setback became his greatest asset:
“No longer able to hold the glassblowing pipe, he hired others to do the work.
Chihuly explained the change in a 2006 interview, saying “Once I stepped back, I liked the view”, and said that it allowed him to see the work from more perspectives, enabling him to anticipate problems earlier.
Chihuly’s role has been described as “more choreographer than dancer, more supervisor than participant, more director than actor“.
There you have it:
The reason Chihuly was able to transcend the medium and create his timeless work was because his injury forced him to take a step back.
When he was no longer the one blowing the glass, everything opened up.
There’s a lesson here.
🧠 2. How To Sell Your Thinking – A Single Building With Two Rooms
This article was resurfaced for me this week by my friend and collaborator Charles Miller, CEO of Platoon.
If you’ve struggled to get out of selling “time” and “deliverables,” and want to move towards getting paid for your thinking, this article by David C. Baker breaks down exactly where your blocks are.
🧘 3. Presence Is More Rewarding Than Productivity – 18 Life-Learnings from 18 Years
Maria Popova has been writing her blog The Marginalian for the last 18 years.
This post breaks down 18 life-lessons from those 18 years.
They’re all worth a read, but these 3 jumped out to me:
Presence is far more intricate and rewarding an art than productivity. Ours is a culture that measures our worth as human beings by our efficiency, our earnings, our ability to perform this or that. The cult of productivity has its place, but worshipping at its altar daily robs us of the very capacity for joy and wonder that makes life worth living — for, as Annie Dillard memorably put it, “how we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.”
Build pockets of stillness into your life. Meditate. Go for walks. Ride your bike going nowhere in particular. There is a creative purpose to daydreaming, even to boredom. The best ideas come to us when we stop actively trying to coax the muse into manifesting and let the fragments of experience float around our unconscious mind in order to click into new combinations. Without this essential stage of unconscious processing, the entire flow of the creative process is broken.
Do nothing for prestige or status or money or approval alone. As Paul Graham observed, “prestige is like a powerful magnet that warps even your beliefs about what you enjoy. It causes you to work not on what you like, but what you’d like to like.” Those extrinsic motivators are fine and can feel life-affirming in the moment, but they ultimately don’t make it thrilling to get up in the morning and gratifying to go to sleep at night — and, in fact, they can often distract and detract from the things that do offer those deeper rewards.
☕️ 4. Pottery I’ve Got My Eye On – East Fork In The Pines
This year we’ve gone all in on East Fork.
I can’t say enough about their pottery.
Major upgrade to our pantry.
They’re one of those rare things that you buy, and then every time you use it, you’re reminded again of why you bought it.
And they just dropped another fall seasonal color that is looking preeetttty good…
In The Pines.
Check out the collection here.
🍭 5. Little Treat I’ve Been Enjoying – Rick James
One of my local coffee shops makes this drink called a “Rick James.”
It’s definitely not an every day drink, but when the mood hits me, I go for it.
So here’s the recipe:
- Espresso
- Mexican Coke
- Vanilla Bean Syrup
Coffee + Coke is a surprisingly delicious combo.
Don’t knock it until you try it!
How we can work together
When you’re ready, here are 3 ways I can help you:
- 🎧 My Podcast. Listen to or watch my free podcast The Rich Webster Show. It is an unfiltered look behind the scenes at my life and work.
- 🏖 How To Work Less. From 2012-2023, I built a design agency that made me $500k/year, working 10 hours a week. 🏖How To Work Less teaches you how to do it. Enrolling now. (350+ past students. 5 stars)
- 🧪 Work Closely With Me. If you’re an entrepreneur making 6-7 figures and want direct mentorship and consulting with me, let’s talk and see if there’s a fit for us to work together.
- 🏫 To Be Announced Soon!