💎 Friday Gems #26 (Mike Monteiro, From Data to Wisdom, Art & Fear)

Three gems to help you thrive.

Aug 11, 2023

Aegyo Low Fidelity readers!

We are all artists.

Whether you’re a writer, dancer, creator, builder, podcaster, designer, or create any other form of art, you are using your creative skills to bring your unique ideas to life.

However, along the way, many obstacles, such as comparison with others, fear, doubt, uncertainty, and impostor syndrome, need to be dealt with, no matter how much talent we may have if we are to bring our creativity to life.

Doing the inner work is hard.

Doing the inner work is scary.

Doing the inner work is not glamorous.

But it must be done, and it will be done.

We can overcome.

We can face our fears and reach our potential.

We got this!

As always, reach out if you need to talk. I’m here for you. 💜

On to this week’s gems!

💎 Mike Monteiro: Still here. Just painting.

What I love about Mike Monteiro is that he is a straight shooter.

He doesn’t mince words and tells it like it is.

Many years ago, as I was starting out in my design career, I attended his workshop on gaining confidence in presenting designs.

Mike helped us all build our confidence by clearing out any myths or assumptions we had about presenting our designs to our teams and clients.

He cut to the chase and provided the encouragement and real talk we needed to present our designs confidently.

At the end of the workshop, all attendees were to give a 5-minute presentation on their designs and get live feedback from him and his partner Erica Hall.

Talk about an anxiety-inducing moment!

As my turn came, I stood up and worked my way through the presentation. I thought I did a great job and was feeling good about it, but then Mike set me straight and pointed out the things I needed to work on. His feedback brought me back down to the ground. It was painful to hear, and my ego did get hurt but looking back now, that is exactly what I needed. I needed someone to tell me the truth and not mince words.

That was a crucial moment in my design education.

A few years later, Mike published two books that gave me the confidence to stand up and stand my ground as a designer in front of others called Design is a Job and You’re My Favorite Client.*

I highly recommend those two books for anyone who is starting out in their design career and even those who need a wake-up call to stand up for themselves as designers.

Lately, Mike has been calling out the BS on the rush to welcome the onslaught of AI in all parts of our lives with open arms and for some, may seem radical in his language, but we need more people like Mike who don’t follow the tech-bro calls to blindly fall in line with the latest trend that can do great damage.

Yes, AI may have some great applications, but if we have learned anything from the meteoric rise of social media platforms, it is that we are never sold the dark side of technology until it is too late. This is why we must be vigilant and protective of ourselves and our future.

This is why people like Mike Monteiro are needed to raise the alarm when we are deviating off course and to help us stand up for ourselves at work and in life. ✊🏽

Source: Mike Monteiro’s Good News

💎 From Data to Wisdom: Connecting the Dots

This graph sums up my goal for Low Fidelity to bring you insights that hopefully will lead to wisdom.

Wisdom to overcome your inner struggles.

Wisdom to lean in and show up in your life.

Wisdom to shift to positive and helpful mindsets.

Wisdom to bring more awareness into your life.

Wisdom to live an examined life.

Wisdom to develop resilience in the face of obstacles.

Wisdom to realize your full creative potential!

Thank you for your support!

💎 Art & Fear

This quote resonated with me because I was the amateur, the optimist, the foolish designer who believed that only if I had enough experience,

enough years under me,

enough skills,

enough money,

or enough of a title,

my work would become easy, and I wouldn’t need to feel bad about the critical feedback I received at that time.

Wow, I was wrong!

Now I know better.

There will always be obstacles along the way no matter how much experience we have. Learning to move past the obstacles to create our art is where the magic happens.

As Ryan Holiday put it, the obstacle is the way.

This quote in the image above is from the book Art & Fear* which is a great read to break free from the myths we pick up along the way and start believing about creating our art. Whether you’re a designer, writer, performance artist, or whatever you believe your art to be, this book lays out the challenges we all face along the way to expressing the ideas within us.

Let me know in the comments if any of the gems resonate with you. I always love hearing from you. :)