My New Code of Awesomeness is to Steal Like an Artist

We live in an amazing time where education is opening up along with tools to connect and understand the individual learning process. You could go online right now and freely learn programming, marketing, robotics, and more from top institutions. You could build a website for next to nothing to fuel that hobby, the real life passion that you secretly dream about. You can connect with other people from around the world that you may never meet and collaborate on new ideas that would take longer in isolation. Or you could just watch TV and drink beer. Before you think about that choice try on my new Code of Awesomeness made from Stealing Like an Artist.

The Code of Awesomeness

The original Code of Awesomeness comes from MindValleyInsights. That code allows them to connect internally and externally with people all over the world. In fact their goal is to connect with 500 million people people by 2050. It is a great code and I am going to steal it. Here is their code:

“I dare to dream big

evolve through learning

am positive & passionate

practice transparency & candor

help others rock their greatest lives

turns customers into raving fans

am grateful & I celebrate life

kick serious ass

am a money magnet

honor my words with action”

The code becomes especially powerful when you combine it with stealing like an artist.

Steal Like an Artist

Steal Like an Artist is an awesome book by Austin Kleon. He writes it as if he were giving advice to his twenty-four year old self. If you buy it make sure to get the hard copy and not the ebook because the ideas need to be held to be understood. The basic idea behind stealing like an artist is that some of the greatest people steal ideas, modify, and infuse them as their own. That stealing (to modify and make your own not just taking it) is not only ok but expected.

The Code of Awesomeness in Stealing Like an Artist

Bringing the ideas together here is what I came up with:

I dare to evolve through learning

from others and making it my own

I seek out those that are passionate about

their craft to help springboard my own passions

while helping others rock their own

I allow myself and others to fail so we succeed

I ship often and with pride knowing that each moment is its own

What makes the Code of Awesomeness work? I think it takes connecting with other people and finding and using your posse:

“It works like this: Posse Scholars attend college in groups of 10 or so — a little team. During their academic careers they  meet weekly, support each other, connect to other scholars who’ve graduated, help each other get past the obstacles of life.”

Being online provides a chance to find a posse by connecting with people who share the same passions and, in some ways, have similar stories to tell. Banding together helps to get through the tough times while also pushing us to excel beyond our usual boundaries.

What It Means for the Little Guy Revolution

Think of your website as a home-base, a hub that connects all of your online activity. A website is your own platform where you develop and allow your own voice to come through without worrying about updates and changes from being on someone else’s platform. Great artists and inventors like Steven Jobs borrow, steal, and ride on the shoulders of giants before them. It is our job to do the same.

“The Internet can be more than just a resting place to publish your finished ideas-it can also be an incubator for ideas that aren’t fully formed, a birthing center for developing work you haven’t started yet.”–from the book Steal Like an Artist.

When you have a website you board a ship to traverse the expanse of the Internet. Writing pages and posts for a site frees your brain to make new connections, follow your own Code of Awesomeness, and Steal Like an Artist.

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