When I explore a creative topic, roughly twenty-nine out of thirty of my ideas are either average or stupid.
The average ones are usually restatements of other bland ideas; the stupid ones have no substance, entirely miss the point, or are offensive (or some combination of all three).
Twenty-nine out of thirty. 97%. That’s a lot of mediocrity and stupidity.
Yet, for as long as I can remember in my professional career—my first job as an engineer, my second job as a physician, and even my current job as a writer—one out of thirty times I hit pay dirt. I come up with something interesting, unique, or insightful.
I am not an efficient creative. I am a volume creative. And knowing this allows me to not take my twenty-nine out of thirty pieces of nonsense I create too seriously.