Creativity's biggest enemy is desperation. (Source)
In my early 20s, I started two retail stores with a friend. Retail is hard; even the big guys go bankrupt. After 3 years, we were losing too much money. We decided to close down.
I was personally responsible for a portion of the company's losses.
That amounted to about $80,000.
I was young and didn't have that much money. This debt was a huge burden. I went from being a creative, energetic person, to someone who was anxious and desperate. I couldn't think straight.
Sometimes being desperate can be the push we need. When your back's up against the wall, you're able muster every bit of energy you have, and push hard.
But desperation can also have the opposite effect.
It can make you feel tired, hopeless, and disoriented. Desperation can, metaphorically, squeeze the creative juice right out of you.
In 2013, Harvard researchers did a study of how financial stress affects decision making. Denise Cummins, Ph.D. explains their findings in Psychology Today:
When the cost of [a car] repair was increased to $3,000, a very different picture emerged: The cognitive performance of those at the upper end of the income distribution was unaffected by the increase. But those at the lower end suffered a 40% decline! The authors interpreted this to mean that scarcity impaired people’s ability to think clearly. The threat—even an imagined threat—of a large bill made it difficult for poor people to focus on the cognitive tasks at hand.
Desperation impedes our thinking because we're distracted by our stress. We're consumed by the short term challenges in front of us, and can't see the big picture.
"Stress is a well-known creativity killer" - psychologist Robert Epstein, PhD (Source)
Isn't it ironic? So many artists, makers, and independent entrepreneurs are under stress all the time! That stress removes the one thing we need to survive: our creativity.
Makers create their best work when they're hungry. You have to be motivated to build your product, expand your network, grow your audience, and improve your marketing.

You don't want to starve, but you also can't slip into apathy. You need to stay hungry.
What causes us to slip into desperation? Here's a few examples:
At some point in our lives, we'll all experience some desperation. We need to be prepared for it, and learn how to respond the right way.
Your first impulse will be to manically solve your problem. Your lizard brain takes over and is hell bent on survival. Desperate times lead to desperate thinking.
Stay calm. Don't jump to the first thing that crosses your mind.
Here's the framework that I used when I had that $80,000 debt hanging over me:
Want to build your own product? It's especially important for you to stay vigilante. Here's my advice for makers who want to go independent:
Long-term, product revenue will definitely bring you more freedom. But remember, it's an incremental freedom. You'll start now and earn your first $1 today. Tomorrow it will be $2, and so on.
"Building your own stuff provides an incremental freedom."
Are you in a strong position right now? Help others! People need someone strong to believe in them, encourage them, or invest in them. If you're in a place where you can give, do it!
Cheers,
Justin Jackson
@mijustin