You Have Everything You Need

Creativity Flourishes Under Constraints

“Own only what you can always carry with you: know languages, know countries, know people. Let your memory be your travel bag.” — Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Food For Thought

You Have Everything You Need

In Communist Russia, tens of millions of people were killed or sent to their deaths in the Gulag. The problem with an evil government that tries to (and does) kill millions of people… is that eventually they will try to kill the wrong person.

For the Soviets, that one person was a yet-to-be writer. Over the years this man was: imprisoned, starved, and faced countless horrors. Along the way, he began writing a novel… in his head. Some days he would get lucky and find pieces of toilet paper he could scribble his ideas down on, but most of the time, he was limited to recording the entire book mentally.

When he finally managed to escape the Gulag and get real pens and paper, he wroteThe Gulag Archipelago, a masterpiece that was partly responsible for bringing down the Soviet Union and exposing its crimes. After his ordeal, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn wrote:

“One man who stopped lying could bring down a tyranny.”

The best novels and books emerged out of enormous pressures. If you want to create something that stands the test of time, be warned:

Give up all hopelessness, because it is possible.

History is filled with examples of creators who produced lasting work with far fewer resources than you have and under far more hellish conditions.

You don’t need a little more money, a little more time, a little more inspiration… a little more anything. Creative constraints build masterpieces. Start building yours.