Creativity is one of the most unforgiving of careers. It’s brutal. It rewards without question and it punishes remorselessly. It doesn’t take prisoners and it has no respect for reputation. And the longer you go on doing it, the harder it gets. How many creative careers have we seen soar to great heights and then crash and burn? Brilliant one minute, tragic and vulnerable the next.
Hubris is one of creativity’s great enemies and the natural consequence of egotism. Where hubris does differ, however, is in its absolute belief in itself, its total arrogance.
If Ego is all about the ‘I,’ hubris is all about the ‘Me.’ An absolute belief in one’s own genius.
Of course, you have to believe in what you’re doing but like everything in life excessive belief will destroy you. One way to guard against this is to find a voice you can trust. Someone who you can turn to who will tell you the genuine truth.
The problem is your success will isolate you from these voices. Without realizing it you will have become surrounded by people who agree with everything you suggest. Your youthful, insightful intuition will be replaced by faded, clichéd renditions that carry echoes of greatness but sadly not the intensity.
To be truly great you have to listen, you have to understand humility, and you have to recognize your own vulnerability. And that, I can assure you, is hard.