Wednesday 7 January 2015

Recommended Read: The Art of Asking

The Art of Asking; or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Let People Help

Over Christmas I realised I'd accidentally been subscribed to Audible for the last few months and decided to quickly use up the credits I'd stored up in my ignorance. I stumbled upon 'The Art of Asking' by Amanda Palmer. I must confess (and I'm very sorry if she ever reads this!) I had not come across Amanda Palmer before but she had me at the description of being a living statue. Who doesn't want to learn more about the life of a living statue?!


Amanda Palmer is an artist with many strings to her bow and is most famous (although not so me as I seem to have been living under a rock for the last few years) for her million dollar funded Kickstarter campaign and her 3 million view TED talk on the subject. 'The Art of Asking' is basically about how nobody successful has reached their level of success without asking for help along the way with lots of examples from Amanda Palmer's life along the way. A lot of creative people shy away from doing this, me very much included, and her message is 'take the donuts' (take the help that is offered to you and don't be afraid to ask for it either).

I'm really pleased that I didn't google her before listening to the audiobook because Amanda Palmer is quite a controversial figure online and I didn't have any preconceived ideas about her beforehand. When I was listening to her book all I kept thinking was 'what a warm, kind person'. I truly admire her ability to make friends wherever she goes and how open she is to  new experiences.

I found the book very inspiring, listening to it in just a couple of days, and recommend it to all creatives. Particularly with fresh starts and new projects in mind for the beginning of 2015!