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Four items recently:

1.  I bought the album of an indie singer/songwriter I discovered in San Francisco named Sam Johnson.  Love his music.  My wife and I jam to it every weekend.

2.   I splurged on a nice backpack by Everki.  The improvement that a great backpack brings to my life daily and, especially, when I travel is incalculable. 

3.  I got tired of trying to rely on outdated iHome devices or tying into hotel televisions to hear music when we travel, so I finally bought a Bose wireless bluetooth speaker.  The little thing sounds amazing and our time traveling is now 1000X more enjoyable.  It works great to bring music to our back patio as well.  Never underestimate the power and importance of music. 
 

4.  If you suffer from allergies, like I do, then do yourself a favor and get a nasal rinse kit.  It makes a HUGE difference.   I recommend Neilmed. 

1. I Play guitar - this always takes my mind off the current issue and calms my mental state.  It also allows my subconscious to take over and I often solve the problem while I'm playing and not trying so hard.  

2. I go for a walk.  If it's a nice day this is a great way to get away, calm down and come back feeling recharged.

3. Switch to another project - Sometimes you just hit a wall on a given project and, if you're not feeling burned out, you can simply switch to another project for a while.

4.  Like Greg Norman said in his response, sometimes I'm just frustrated and need to yell "F**K" as loud as I can.  It doesn't sound like a healthy response, but it actually can help to let it out verbally.

Saying "no" has always been a strength of mine and I've always been good at it.  This is a hugely important skill to master.  Saying "no" has allowed me to build my entire company.   I'm often invited to "grab coffee", participate in a panel, judge a hackathon, go to investment pitch dinners, etc.  If I actually did those things, I would have never had the time and the focus necessary to build BoldBrush and FASO into the businesses they are today.  Like Steve Jobs said, "People think focus means saying yes to the thing you've got to focus on. But that's not what it means at all. It means saying no to the hundred other good ideas that there are."  I've always operated under that same philosophy.  Honestly, given where I am today, I actually think that I probably need to learn to say "yes" every now and then.

I have a few unusual/absurd habits:  I drink Diet Coke, probably too much of it.  Yes, I know people think it's poison.  People who eat too much sugar and never work out love telling me that I need to stop drinking diet coke.  But, you know, I'm human and I'm allowed a vice too.  I like to learn rap songs.  It seems absurd for a skinny white guy like me to be channeling Lil' Wayne or Busta Rhymes, but, you asked for an absurd thing that I love.   Cats - I really dig cats and they seem to dig me.  My friends call me the "cat whisperer."  I've started carrying cat treats with me when I travel so that I can befriend the street cats we come across.   And lastly, for some reason, I view taking the elevator instead of the stairs as a weakness of some sort.  So I usually take the stairs if going up less than ten stories.  But here's the really absurd thing:  In the building where the BoldBrush office is located, you can't take the stairs from the first floor to the second floor.  So, when I get to work, I take the elevator to the 2nd floor and then run up the stairs to the 8th floor.  I stopped making my coworkers join me when one of them nearly hyperventilated.

We see lots of well-meaning people trying to "help" artists market their art.  This could often be advice from a friend, a family member or even a spouse who has some experience in marketing "regular" (not artwork) products.  People like this often tell artists "Marketing is marketing.  I know how to market {{fill in the blank}}, so we can just apply that knowledge to marketing your art."   Sounds logical, but, it's completely wrong.  Marketing art is a unique endeavor and it is not like marketing most other products.  If you attempt to market art like you market most products, you'll end up wasting a lot of time doing things that don't help very much, and you won't spend enough time doing the things that really work.  Tell your well-meaning friend "thanks, but no thanks" and go learn how to actually market art.

Try to take a year off and travel the world.  If that's not possible, try to arrange at least a semester to study abroad.  Also, try to keep your options open as long as possible.  Once you graduate, people will expect you to get locked into a career, get married, have kids.  Those aren't necessarily bad things, but, each step along that path locks the future direction of your life somewhat.  It's quite likely at your young age that you may still discover something new you want to pursue, so the longer you keep your options open, the better.

While I still struggle daily to find the "correct" place mentally, I would say that learning to keep things in the proper perspective has most improved my life.  It's a cliche, but life is not a practice run.  The important things are not paperwork, money and things.  They are friends, loved ones, and experiences.  So I've learned not to put life "on hold" until some future date or until some nebulous future goal is met.  I'm living life, now.   As an example, we just spent a month in Italy with friends.  Many of my contemporaries in tech tell me, as they work 70 hours a week, "I don't understand how you can run a tech company and go to Italy for a month."  That always strikes me as strange, because some of these are people who sold their first companies for many millions of dollars.  If anyone could afford to take off and go to Italy, it's them, not me.  But after selling their first companies, they jump right back in and end up creating another job for themselves that chains them to the brutal work schedule of modern life.  My response is usually something like, "I don't understand how you can't go to Italy for a month.  What are you waiting for?"

1.  For philosophy/perspective, Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl

2.  For business/marketing, Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind by Al Ries (and his related books)

3.  Fiction:  the Harry Potter series.

This post was inspired by reading Tribe of Mentors by Tim Ferris.  If you'd like to read the answers to these questions by many famous though leaders, I encourage you to get a copy of Tribe of Mentors for yourself at this link.

Clint Watson

BoldBrush/FASO Founder & Art Fanatic