Guilty of Creative Masturbation?

Are you guilty of that?

We’re all guilty of creative masturbation at times, but some people manage to take it to the extreme and do it almost consistently in every activity.

Uh. Okay. Lets back up a bit and explain what I mean by this. I am not talking about an activity you would get arrested for if you were to do it in public (though you should). Creative masturbation is when you show off your skill at something, simply to show it off, whilst someone else is paying the ticket for you.

It is the 20 minute drum or guitar solo on a 64 minute music CD. Even worse it is the 59 minutes of “experimental” tracks bolstered by just one 5 minute hit single that was used to entice someone to buy the CD in the first place.

It is six continuous pages of text in a novel describing in minute detail the inner workings of a particular, and usually completely mythical, world or process.

It is the company brochure that shows how clever you are at designing brochures when you make simple, non-descript widgets for the public restroom industry.

It is you worrying if enough flames are lighting up the logo on your company website whilst customer calls go unanswered.

Take a step back from your current task or project and ask yourself this “Is someone masturbating over this?” because if they are, you’re wasting money, and more importantly, your time, pleasuring someone’s creative spot rather than getting your product out the door or your service in front of people.

And this is the only reason when I will ever tell you to stop masturbating.

And now I recommend you get back to doing what pleases you.