Why You Need To Establish Your Asset Creation Game Now
You Are The Hero of Your Asset Creation Game
Since the pandemic, I have created more than 424 Medium articles, 660 YouTube videos, and 400 doodle pages. How did I do this? I acted as a hero of my asset creation game. You need to do the same.
In this article, I will share my mindset and resources with you so that you can kickstart your own journey of asset creation. The contents of this article have helped me to create more than $2000 in a year and I expect to double this amount each year.
Are you going to be the hero of your own life or are you going to leave that for somebody else? This is one of the most critical questions you need to address to make your life remarkable. You are the only person who can save yourself. Therefore, you need to step up and become the hero of your asset creation game. Creating your own assets is your key to freedom, power, and happiness.
As the hero of your asset creation game, you need to navigate uncharted territories and find your own adventures. Joseph Campbell calls this “The Hero’s Journey” in his famous classic The Hero with a Thousand Faces.
The hero responds to a call of adventure, departs the familiar world behind, ventures into adventure, experiences failures, goes through tests and trials, proves their own character, and comes back to the hometown with deeper wisdom and learning from the journey.
This article is your call to adventure and you need to respond to it by jumping into action.
The problem is you feel stuck when you face an empty page or a new project. You want to create something fresh and exciting — yet you feel a great burden, fear, and resistance inside you. There are a dozen of voices inside your brain that will try to prevent you from starting your writing or artwork:
- Where will you start? There are infinite choices ahead of you.
- What if you make a mistake? That would be horrible.
- Are you ready? It seems you have not thought this through.
- Do you have inspiration now? It looks like you do not.
- What is your exact vision? It looks like you do not have it yet.
- Are you talented? Where is your talent then?
- Are you really an artist or a writer? How come you cannot produce anything?
- Even if you create this, it will be mediocre at best.
You know these voices inside your head, right? They are always there — ready to paralyze you and bring you down. These voices are full of bullshit. You need to learn to transcend them and move forward. You need to learn to laugh at these voices. You need to jump into action to transcend fear.
To do this, you need to create a safe distance between yourself and your creation. You are just a vehicle here and what you create is independent of you. It just passes through you. Your job is to show up and do your part of the work. Embrace the idea that you are just a steward and a vessel for your ideas. Most of the time, you take yourself too seriously. You are overthinking and under-doing. You need to stop paralyzing yourself and instantly jump into action. Do not let your critical mind stop you. Your stories need to be told, and you just need to show up and start writing.
Your job is to make mistakes, so just go ahead and create your crappy work. What blocks you is the fear of making mistakes. Perfectionism is not good for your soul, and it is not good for your work either. You need to permit yourself to create bad work, i.e. crappy drafts and bad artwork. Your job is to start creating now, even if you feel that this might be the worst quality work ever produced. A mediocre draft you produce today is more valuable than a perfect draft you will produce one day. That one day might never come, and the only day you have is today.
Do not wait for inspiration, jump into action. Write your first sentence. You do not need inspiration — you need a small action. To avoid being stuck, you need to keep moving. Start writing just a few lines and see what happens. Do not make a big deal out of it. You will just write or create a tiny bit and see where it goes.
The first five minutes are particularly difficult, as you will feel a lot of resistance and your mind will try to escape. Hang in there and embrace the moment. Embrace your fear, take note of it, and then let go of it. Keep working, and be more open to playing and messing around. What would this look like if it were easy and fun? Create some ideas to make it more fun, original, and playful. The world is waiting for you to jump into action, unleash your creativity, and share your fresh ideas. This means you need to leave your familiar territory behind and set sail to new horizons which are full of unknowns and surprises. Growth comes from leaving comfort behind and navigating uncertainty. Think about the stories of your life and your role as a hero in this journey:
- How did you give your life to something bigger than yourself?
- What were the occasions or challenges? How did you rise to the occasion?
- How were you transformed from a caterpillar to a butterfly?
- How did you leave your comfort zone and navigate uncharted territories?
Share these stories with the world. Your hero mindset helps you transcend above the fears and worries that paralyze you. You need to act within ten seconds whenever you make a positive decision. If you think longer, your brain will prevent and paralyze you. The key to dealing with your fears is to acknowledge and analyze them and take precautions as necessary. Which fears are justifiable? Which fears are irrelevant? How can you prepare for negative scenarios?
Creative Exercise: Your Life as A Movie
When I attended Julia Cameron’s “The Artist’s Way Weekend” in London, she shared a fun creative exercise where you imagine that your life story is made a movie by Hollywood. Respond to the following prompts below:
- Write the title of this movie.
- What is your success story? How do you describe your impact or legacy?
- What are the most significant stories of your life? Why?
- Write the main plot of the movie. What is the plot summary? Think about the storylines unfolding in your life. Where are the twists? Do you experience a hero’s adventure?
- Who would play you in the movie?
- Who are the other main characters? How do they interact? Are there any bad guys?
- What are the four skills that your cinema self has, but you do not have yet?
- What are the top 5 places you need to travel to as your cinema self, but you have not yet been to? Imagine what you would do in these places and how these might be incorporated into your movie.
- What would be some of the memorable quotes that you would say in the movie? On life wisdom, career advice, creative courage, perseverance, or entrepreneurial success? Write down 4–5 quotes that reflect your philosophy or mindset.
Four Heroes Who Started Their Asset Creation Games
David Baldacci has written mystery novels every night between 22.00 and 2 a.m. Although he was a lawyer, he turned himself into a superhero at night. He continued this writing practice every night for 20 years. He has published 40 books using this method. He is one of the best-selling authors in the world in the area of mystery novels and thrillers.
Nas Daily produces 1-minute videos every day — he has done it for 1000 consecutive days without skipping any day. He has given himself 24-hour deadlines. He never broke the chain and he produced 1000 videos in 1000 days. This practice has made him rich and famous. He created his own content empire.
Joe Rogan gives everyone the following advice: Act like your life is a movie, and you are the superhero starring in this movie. Joe Rogan has created more than 4,000 episodes of his podcasts and has reached millions of followers. He has recently made a 100m$ deal with Spotify. Joe Rogan has now become the highest-paid broadcaster in the world.
Ninja(Tyler Blevins) was working at a fast-food joint. He realized he loved playing computer games and he was really good at it. He became the king of Fortnite. He started streaming these games on YouTube and Twitch. He followed his passions and shared his excitement with the whole world. He now makes almost $1 million a month. He has been chosen to Time100.
You have read four incredible success stories above. What do they have in common?
- They have followed their passions and curiosities.
- They love what they are doing. They have great fun.
- They share their excitement with the whole world.
- They act as if they are the hero in the movie of their life.
- They have established their own game on the Internet.
- They provide inspiration, excitement, and value to millions of people.
- They have found and built on their unique voices and strengths.
- They have a very long-term focus and perspective.
- Most importantly, they have created their own creative assets. They are running a marathon and their marathon has paid off incredibly well for them.
I have found this success secret very recently in my life. I decided that I needed to go beyond the narrow world of academia and meet the world at large. With a renewed sense of mission and commitment, I would follow my passions and create my own creative assets in my life. Reflecting on my strengths and passions, I have taken three distinct paths of asset creation.
My Three Paths of Asset Creation: Medium, Youtube, and Doodles
First, I have made a radical decision during the pandemic lockdown in late March 2020. I would write regularly and consistently for Medium publishing them every day or every two days. Since then, I have written 420 articles on Medium. I think of it as a small business: I now have 420 items on the shelves of my Medium shop.
Second, I started recording my weekly conversations with my sister and my friends. I uploaded these videos to YouTube and created two channels: FahriKarakas YouTube Channel and H2M YouTube Channel. I am now having a lot of fun experimenting with new formats, topics, and ideas. In about two years, I have created 650 videos and I am just at the start of my game.
Third, I started doodling every day. About 15 or 20 minutes. A very simple act. As I have done this consistently over one year, this journey enabled me to create a book of doodle exercises to increase self-awareness and creativity.
The good thing about your asset creation journey is that your assets will continue to generate money over the long term. On Medium, for example, the more people read and enjoy your article, the more money you will make. Moreover, your inventory (i.e. article) is not diminished and it will stay online forever (hopefully).
Your article is your asset. This means each article acts as your soldier and continues to pay you dividends. You can see one of my articles on Medium below — it has made $107.08 as of today.
If you asked me in January 2020 how many articles I would write in one year, I would have responded 15. Maybe 20. I would have never guessed that I could write so many articles.
I have come across a diary entry from 2019 where I told myself to write one article every month. This goal was not inspiring, so I ended up not writing for several months. When I decided to pursue an ‘impossibly high’ goal of publishing 250 articles in 10 months, I felt more intrigued and took this as a serious game to challenge myself.
How did I create so many articles even though I am busy teaching, grading, and doing research? My secret is to trick myself into writing consistently and moving with very small steps. I promise myself that I will write for about half an hour each day, even if I am super tired or busy.
When I start writing and continue for 30 minutes, I often achieve momentum and end up writing even more. Sometimes, I will write for several hours because I am captivated by the writing journey.
If you want to create your own creative assets: The secret is in one line. One sentence at a time. One doodle at a time. One drawing at a time. One small step at a time.
You then repeat it, keep creating, do it consistently, and do not break the chain.
Imagine where you would be in just 3 months if you wrote one page every day, you created one visual, and you spoke one minute on video:
- You would have 90 pages written on your Medium.
- You would have 90 visuals/pictures on your Instagram.
- You would have 90 videos uploaded on your YouTube channel.
This would make you a totally different person. I am a living example and proof of this. I have combined my artistic passions, entrepreneurial ambitions, and intellectual pursuits to create fresh ideas and content. I feel more alive since I started creating my own creative assets. Below is my guide on how to create your own content empire:
Workshop: Create Your Creative Assets
In the last part of this article, I share the workshop I have taught my students at the University of East Anglia. The title of this workshop is “Create Your Own Creative Assets”. In the workshop, I present you with a set of exercises and resources to unleash your imagination.
As you start creating your own creative assets, you will also start a new journey of self-discovery, creativity, and abundance. In this journey, you are only competing with yourself. You need to find your own path in this life and this workshop (below) will help you to do that.
The Video of The Workshop: Create Your Own Creative Assets
As you watch this workshop, please think about what kind of creative assets you would like to create in your life. Imagine that you will die in five years. What do you wish to create during these five years? Start creating them right now.
The biggest game of your life is creating your own creative assets in your life. There are fascinating things that only you can bring to the world. Fresh, exciting, and original things. What are they?
These might be:
- Establishing your own YouTube channel
- Writing your own book
- Broadcasting on Twitch
- Writing articles on Medium
- Establishing your digital brand
- Creating an online brand on Instagram
- Selling your artwork on Etsy
- Starting your Kickstarter project
- Growing your audience at Patreon
- Catching up with viral dances at TikTok
- Creating your own ebook on GumRoad
- Creating your own digital products or services
- Creating your own online course on Thinkific or Skillshare and teaching online
- Creating an audiobook
- Establishing your own lifestyle brand and blog(like Goop created by Gwyneth Paltrow)
- Creating a podcast
Which one(s) will you create in the next five years? What will you bring to the world out there?
After you finish reading this article, take a small action immediately. Do not wait for inspiration. Do not wait for perfection. Starting your blog, podcast, or YouTube channel takes just a couple of minutes — do it today!
Start now and start small: How can you take a small action now? How can you continue taking small steps every day? How can you continue your adventure every day without quitting and without breaking the chain (of creating)?
Remember that you need to create at least 500 pieces of work (i.e. treat each attempt as a different experiment) before you quit. Do not expect quick returns — this is a marathon.
The Slides of The Workshop: Create Your Own Creative Assets
Remember that your writing is not a game of words. Writing is not about your style, use of language, or grammar. Writing is about changing the world. Writing is a game of ideas that matter. You will try to influence your readers and inspire them with fresh ideas — this is what matters.
- Can you help readers grow new insights and connections?
- Can you transform their thinking into something positive and powerful?
- Can you help them make new decisions in their lives?
- Can you come up with radical ideas that will help your readers make progress in their lives?
These will make or break your writing. How can you add tremendous value to the lives of your readers through fresh, radical, unorthodox ideas? This is what matters.
Try to develop a long-term view and be patient with your outcomes. Your inner compass and having fun are much more important than any external rewards or outcomes.
If something does well, say ‘This is cool’ and move on to your next project. If something does not do well, again say ‘This is cool’, learn from your mistakes, and move on. You need to learn how to build your internal defenses against the need for validation by external rewards or praises. You are writing and creating because you are having fun, not because you are read by thousands of people.
Creating your own creative assets is the best path to happiness, productivity, abundance, and creativity. However, you need to view it as a marathon and establish your own game where you can excel.
Start creating today, use your imagination, create every day, do not break the chain, and do these for five years — you will enjoy tremendous results if you do not give up.
