Between conferences, webex demos, conference calls and vendor meetings, in the last 2 months I’ve sat through 24 presentations. Of course with few exceptions, they were all full of imbecilic PowerPoint presentations, composed strictly of bulleted lists that were either obvious or irrelevant and punctuated with distracting, inappropriate animations.

Listening to “expert consultants” give me list after list of how to be successful doing something they do not do is a sure fire way to send me to my happy place. Fortunately, while there I was able to codify an idea that had been hounding me for some time.

While a particular “expert consultant” was detailing Vogue-style for me the 10 Things That Will Cause A Creative Venture to Fail and the 4 Quick Fixes for Something Something Not Listening I wrote this, my only note from the presentation, on a note card.

Everything Works. But Not for You.

Listening to practicing experts is great, and I do it as much as I can. But every project, every venture, every artist, book, blog, website, podcast and business is unique. Listening to the lists pushed by Snake Oil Salesman and Industry Pundits will have you imitating the success of someone they’ve only read about, and you’ll fail because you are not that person.

Everything works. But that doesn’t mean it will work for you. Your situation is unique, so don’t fail by trying to follow the lists you found on the internet. Brew some coffee, sit down with a sharpie and blank sheet of paper and try something crazy.

This post is as much for me as it is for you.