How the Law of 100 Can Help Creatives

On today’s episode of Creative Space, we’ll be exploring Noah Kagan’s Law of 100 and how it can apply to creativity.

I first heard about the concept on his podcast and loved it so much, I picked up his book over the weekend, “Million Dollar Weekend.”

So what is the Law of 100 exactly? Well, you have to listen to the podcast to find out, but if you have a tendency to quit projects too soon, it’s something worth looking into.

While Noah uses this idea in the context of business, I think it most definitely applies to our creative pursuits as well, whether you’re learning a new instrument, starting a new creative project, or changing mediums altogether.

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SHOW NOTES:

0:00—Intro

2:20—The Law of 100

3:15—How I’m using the Law of 100

5:30—Quantity vs. Quality Study and Jerry Uelsmann

Transcript

Jennifer Logue: 0:10

Hello everyone and welcome to another episode of Creative Space, a podcast where we explore, learn and grow in creativity together. I'm your host, jennifer Logue, and today we're talking about a concept I learned about on the subject of quitting. So many of us quit too early, whether it's with learning to play a new instrument or starting a new creative project, like a podcast, for instance, or diving into a new creative medium. Maybe you're a writer who's now studying acting for the first time, or a guitar player who's just started to learn music production. Whatever this new thing is, so many of us quit before we've really given ourselves a chance to progress. In some cases, we may experience early success when trying something new and we may take that as a sign of hey, I may be pretty good at this. Other times, however, we may encounter the exact opposite. We may completely suck at whatever new thing we're trying and some of us may interpret that early failure, that inability to get it down right away, as a sign that we shouldn't continue doing something. With podcasts, for example, this statistic is mentioned frequently online by different influencers and in a decently referenced article by WooCommerce, that 90% of podcasts don't make it past episode three. Let me repeat that 90% of podcasts don't make it to episode three. So my question is what could you possibly learn about podcasting after just doing three episodes? And if you quit because you weren't getting results? It's almost like saying I went to the gym three times and I still don't have six pack abs, so I quit. Or I took three guitar lessons and I sound nothing like Jimi Hendrix I quit. Yet so many of us quit too early, myself included.

Jennifer Logue: 2:20

And then I came across a really cool concept on a podcast I started listening to Noah Kagan Presents. He's a serial entrepreneur, has great energy and has so many great tips for people wanting to start their own business, so I highly recommend his podcast. I think his business savvy can be really helpful for artists. Now onto the concept for artists. Now onto the concept he talked about. This concept of his called the Law of 100, and its primary aim is to combat our urge to quit too early. How does it work? Well, whenever we try something new, we have to commit to doing it 100 times before we even think of stopping. So if you're taking up the guitar, get ready to commit to 100 lessons. If you want to start a podcast, commit to doing 100 episodes.

Jennifer Logue: 3:15

This hit home for me because I have a tendency to quit too early with different projects If I don't see results immediately. My brain thinks maybe this just isn't meant for me and I should stick with what I'm good at. But framed in a different way, something you're not good at right away could be a tremendous opportunity for you to grow. So when I heard about Noah Kagan's Law of 100, my brain went immediately to songwriting. I don't know why, but I have this pull to write songs again. I haven't performed in years, I haven't recorded in the studio in years.

Jennifer Logue: 3:55

Yet while going through the artist's way over the last few weeks, I started getting song ideas out of nowhere. And, as any songwriter knows, you just can't let a song stay stuck in your head, especially when it falls into your lap with a fully mapped out catchy hook. So when God gives you a gift, all we have to do is hold the basket right. Anyway, that got me back to writing songs and I wrote two solid songs with a good 100 half-baked ideas over the last few months. And then I got this feeling like okay, maybe that's it, maybe I'm done with songwriting, maybe it was just something I had to do to get out of my system to free myself up to do something else.

Jennifer Logue: 4:42

But then I heard about the Law of 100, and I realized, even though I wrote a bunch of almost songs, that doesn't quite equal 100 songs. For me to really give this a chance, I need to commit to writing 100 full songs. Now, why would I do this? I don't know, quite honestly, but when inspiration calls I answer. But at its root, it's for growth. I think there's something to be learned in the process of doing this the discipline it's going to require to craft a song a week and really focus on making that one song the best it can be. That's not just going to make me a better songwriter, but a better writer and a better, more disciplined human, but a better writer and a better, more disciplined human.

Jennifer Logue: 5:30

Noah also brings up this idea that we don't have control over the results of what we create. All we can control is our own discipline when it comes to output. Committing to 100 songs, 100 podcast episodes, 100 pieces of art, 100 Days at the Gym and Julia Cameron says something similar in the artist's way in this quote. I quote directly great creator I will take care of the quantity, you take care of the quality. And in his new book Million Dollar Weekend, which I just picked up, noah talks about the law of 100 in greater detail and cites a study from the University of Florida Oops, try that again, honey. And in his new book Million Dollar Weekend, which I just picked up, noah talks about the Law of 100 in greater detail and cites a study from the University of Florida on this quantity versus quality idea.

Jennifer Logue: 6:40

Photography professor Jerry Yulsman divided his photography class into two groups the quantity group and the quality group. Into two groups the quantity group and the quality group. The quantity group had to take 100 pictures to get an A at the end of the class, and the quality group only had to hand in one picture at the end of the class to get an A, but it had to be perfect the results. The quantity group completely dominated the quality group because they were constantly practicing and experimenting. They weren't afraid to make mistakes because they were being graded on the quantity of photos they were taking. The quality group, however, spent more time theorizing about what made a great photo rather than learning through practice.

Jennifer Logue: 7:27

So before you even think about quitting whatever it is, commit to the law of 100. In the very least, you'll give yourself a chance to really develop your skills and grow. If you're interested in checking out Million Dollar Weekend by Noah Kagan, I've linked to it in the show notes. Also, if you love the podcast, please leave a review. It helps other listeners discover it. Anyway, that's all I have for this episode of Creative Space. My name is Jennifer Logue. Appreciate you taking the time to listen. Until next time, thank you.