Show Your Work

Why you should show your work

If you’re like most people, you spend the majority of your time relaxing, working, and consuming, with little time creating things. Showing your work and creating content can be hugely fulfilling, lead to new friendships, and even be profitable.

I first came across this notion in a book titled Show Your Work! by Austin Kleon, and it inspired me to build this website and write consistently. Before reading the book, I never thought much about the ratio of content consumption to creation. I have been consuming information from the internet, books, podcasts, and school, yet I never shared what I was learning or what I thought was interesting and may have even helped others.

Many of the great thinkers who moved society forward had one thing in common—they shared their thoughts and ideas in public to help others and to spark new conversations. Sometimes, I wonder how many great minds we will never know of because they did not publish their work or write their thoughts down.

By working in public, you can create a community of like-minded people and build a body of work that future employers and clients can view to see who you are and what you stand for.

What should you share?

You should write or publish content about things that you love or are passionate about. If you don’t truly care about the subject or topic that you’re talking about, it won’t resonate with your audience.

Humans are average or below average in many facets of life, yet are above average and sometimes extraordinary in a few areas. We should tell and teach people what we know about the domains in which we are exceptional. Even if you are just above average in some areas, you can teach others what you know and share your journey of improvement and learning with them if they’re dealing with a similar situation.

If you have a day job, odds are that you’ve acquired skills that are useful to others. If you’ve come across a piece of information or had an idea that improved your productivity and performance or just made your life better, then you can share that with your audience and hopefully help them.

Creating content doesn’t need to be esoteric and arduous; sometimes, it is just sharing what you are working on or learning about with others.

Why most people never show their work

Fear of what our friends and family think is often the main deterrent for not sharing work publicly. Once you post content on the internet, it is at the disposal of others to make fun of and mock. Inevitably, as your audience grows, so too will trolls and people who denounce your work. I don’t think we should completely ignore negative feedback, as it can be helpful to identify our own blindspots, but we should take them with a grain of salt.

If someone leaves a negative comment or attacks your work, ask yourself, “Is this person actually trying to help me, or are they taking out their own frustrations on me?” Say someone constantly critiques or criticizes your content yet doesn’t produce or create any work of their own. That says much more about what they aren’t doing and what you are doing.

Additionally, creating things is hard. Steven Pressfield talks about “resistance” in his book The War of Art.

“Resistance cannot be seen, touched, heard, or smelled. But it can be felt. We experience it as an energy field radiating from a work-in-potential. It’s a repelling force. It’s negative. Its aim is to shove us away, distract us, prevent us from doing our work.”

Not giving in to “resistance” and fighting through it are the ways to consistently create and produce meaningful work pieces.

Where to start?

Hopefully, you are excited to start sharing your work. There are a plethora of platforms and media to disseminate your content, but which one should you choose?

I’d start with the platform or mode of social media that you are most familiar with or spend the most time on. It could be YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, X, or even Snapchat. If you’re not on social media or do not enjoy spending time on these apps (like me), then you may want to consider building your own website.

Building a website is not as intimidating as it used to be, and you don’t need to know how to code to build an aesthetically pleasing website. I used Squarespace to build this website and newsletter without prior knowledge of code or web design.

The key is just to get started and experiment until you find a method you like and can produce content consistently. You may not have a voice now and not know what to write about, but you won’t know until you’ve done it hundreds of times. Just keep going.