30 Days of Genius- Brandon Stanton

Brandon's words are in bold. My personal comments are in italics. 

• "Always be tough on yourself, always be tough on your work. Humans of New York is never the same as it was 6 months ago."
• You should always be changing as a creative and an individual. Good work is different today than it will be tomorrow. You should be critical of your past work so that it can constantly grow and change.

• "It’s a blessing to be the first one who gets bored with your own work."
• You are the first person to see your work, so you should be the first person to get bored with your work. That means you'll be the first person who wants to create new work, and it will constantly be different.

• "People listen when I speak because I very rarely speak."
• Make your words meaningful. Make your audience value your output, because it is rare and thoughtful.
• Wasn't it Napoleon who said "do not speak unless you are the smartest one in the room."? And look where that got him...

• "We all have advantages and disadvantages unique to ourselves. But everyone has the same capacity to work."
• You'll likely not be the best at something. You're also almost definitely not the worst. But the one thing you can be great at is work. It's one of the few things truly within your control. Work harder and longer than anyone else, and you'll see great results.

• "Following your dreams is nothing but hard work."
• Don't be the musician following her dreams without playing your instrument every single day.
• You're not actually following your dreams as a photographer without taking 100 pictures every single day. 
• Don't make "I'm following my dream" an excuse to not work hard. You need to work doubly hard to bring your talent to the forefront.

• "People are paralyzed by the need to make something great."
• Great work is a long, tedious road. It's spotted with releases of good things, long before there is something great. 
• As an amateur anything, you cannot be afraid of releasing something not great. Put the work out there, it won't ever be perfect anyway.