Stay determined

I was watching a presentation by David Perell, a writer, and Jack Butcher, a designer. They talked about how they started their careers, what lead them to the work they do now, what were the setbacks and failures. It was a very motivating talk. But one thing that David said surprised me. Around minute 40, he said that when he was starting his business, his friends mocked him. He even got an email from a friend who told him that some people that they both knew were making fun of David’s efforts.

I’ve never really thought about it. Maybe some of my friends were making fun of me too? My first designs were awful. My first game had a lot of problems. Did my friends think I was ridiculous? Not that it would have mattered.

Anyway, the whole video is worth watching (but I time stamped when David talked about people making fun of him):

There’s a game, Undertale, where you play as a human who falls underground into the world of monsters. My favorite thing about the game is that it gently — every few minutes — encourages you to be determined.

This past week my brother and I worked on a bug with gamepads in one of our games. That took a lot of time, we spent most days reading on possible issues and trying different solutions. It was difficult to feel motivated when we weren’t seeing any progress. And it wasn’t even our bug but a bug in the game engine that we were building our game in. So we weren’t looking so much for a solution as for a walkaround. We kept at it and now it’s fixed.

I suspect that this kind of attitude is what made it possible for me to have a successful store on Threadless. I know how it is in the beginning: you submit your designs and not sell anything. It is discouraging. I know many people give up. I wish they knew that if only they kept drawing they too could have a profitable store.

I’ve been thinking, maybe every now and then we all could use a reminder to stay determined.