The Beauty of Creating Something

Why Making Something—Anything—is the Closest We Get to Magic

The world is completely motionless just before anything comes into being.

No audience.
No expectations.
No rules.

Just the raw, electrifying promise of what may be.

Creation is one of the rare times in life when we may act like gods without asking for permission.  You take an idea, like a spark, a whisper, a problem, or an emotion, and you make it into something new.  A plan.  A sentence.  A tune.  A company.  A tale.  A life.

When you think about it, that's crazy.
We do it so often that we forget how crazy it really is.

Creation is a kind of revolt that seems like a pastime.
It's not accepting the world as it is.
It's the calm, tenacious conviction that things can be better and that we can make them so.

The beauty of creation is not that it is flawless.
It's that it's broken, human, untidy, and alive.
That's the actual art: every brushstroke, every concept, and every "I'm not sure if this will work, but let's try" moment.

You don't make things because you believe you're special.
You make things because something within you won't let you keep quiet.

Some people call it saying what you mean.
Some people call it a goal.
Some people call it crazy.

It might be all three.

But the fact is that creation rescues you.  It pushes you forward.  It reminds you that you're not simply going through life; you're making it, sculpting it, and carving your initials into it like a pirate would do to the hull of his ship.

When everything else seems to be going wrong, making things provides you a space where you can be in charge.
A location where work turns into something actual.
A place where dreams come true.

A location where you may say:

"This is here because I made it."

That's the most human thing there is.
And nothing else is as wonderful.

So make something, even if it's tiny.
No matter how bad it is.
Even if no one ever sees it.

You may not need another great work of art, but you could need the process of producing one.

That's all you need.