You have no idea what you are doing…and that’s good.

Author Neil Gaiman’s brilliant commencement speech at Philadelphia\’s University of the Arts.

I think this statement is true for many professions:

When you start out on a career in the arts you have no idea what you are doing.

This is great. People who know what they are doing know the rules, and know what is possible and impossible. You do not. And you should not. The rules on what is possible and impossible in the arts were made by people who had not tested the bounds of the possible by going beyond them. And you can.

If you don’t know it’s impossible it’s easier to do. And because nobody’s done it before, they haven’t made up rules to stop anyone doing that particular thing again.

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