8.Show Your Work by Austin Kleon

I’ve finished my 40th book after I was finally released from studying for the 1st class architect license last October, so I want to share one of my favorite books so far.

「Show Your Work」by Austin Kleon : If I were to put this book in 3 sentences it would look like this..

1. Show your work persistently and the right people will find you
2. If you are interested in something never feel ashamed about that
3. Focus on Small ideas forget about the BIG IDEAS

(This is my memo on my first round of reading this, so maybe on my second round, I might be interpreting this differently. I wrote a blog about how I keep book records, so if you’re interested maybe you can check it out.)

So, since I’m that kind of guy who gets EASILY INFLUENCED BY OTHERS, I started blogging. Hoping I can connect with people around the world who has similar interests. Not to SHOW OFF. ( ok.. maybe a little bit)

I’m a residential architect right now, so I spent a lot of time with each client and have the opportunity to get to know a lot about them. And what I’ve noticed is that everyone has their unique story. Not only my clients but also my colleagues. Yes, to be honest, there was A TIME I thought that MY STORY was SO SPECIAL comparing to people who only lived in Japan, just because I used to live in America. (I really don’t know where that sense of entitlement was coming from.. I’m so sorry, I should probably punch myself in the face once in a while) The more time I’ve spent actually listening to other peoples stories, the more I realized everyone has their original drama. A drama worth sharing.

I thought about why the stories were interesting to me. It might have been because I didn’t spend my childhood in Japan so their story were new to me. They lived in places I’ve never been to before. So, that means… even if you think your story is super-boring, it might be boring to share it with the people in the same community, but it might be exciting for people living in a complete different environment as you.

Thankfully, we are living in the age of 「THE INTERNET」. Everyone has the power to connect with anyone around the world. Which also means, everyone has the power to connect with people who’ll accept you for who you are.

Creating a blog only takes like 30 minutes (if you are being yourself), don’t you think it’s worth it?