An Uncommon Creative with Paul Fairweather on Doing It All

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Summary

Hey everyone. Stay tuned to the end of the interview where I’ll give you some actionable insights that I learned from my guest. These insights are also in the show notes. As always, thanks for listening. 

Now on to my guest for today, Paul Fairweather, co-host of The Common Creative podcast, author, architect, artist, and more. 

Paul exemplifies living a multi-dimensional creative life. He’s had a successful career as an award-winning architect; has been a painter for much of his life; has done stand-up comedy and hosted TedX talks; been a property developer; and now divides his time among co-hosting a podcast on creativity and business, writing books, speaking, and pursuing his art. 

Paul defies the maxim of “jack of all trades, master of none.” Instead, you can create a life of multiple interests,though, he cautions, you still have to impose limits, boundaries, and discipline to your craft, whatever it is you’re doing at the time. 

Paul’s experiences and the lessons he provides are wide-ranging as he reflects on leaving his successful career as an architect behind, discovering almost by accident that he could write, and exploring performance, including what happened when he tried to tell a joke to Robin Williams. 

Now, let’s get better together.

Actionable Insights

• Paul believes success can be defined as not just being one of the best in one field - you can define success as the freedom to pursue multiple interests. He is able to find focus partly by finding a common theme among his different activities. 
• Paul learned as a writer to “murder your darlings,” a concept that can be applied to business, too. Be willing to let go of words or ideas that aren’t working, no matter how attached you might be to them. 
• Get curious. Paul shares how one serial entrepreneur struck up a conversation with someone at a party, which inspired him down a road that led to a successful business solving the problem of coconut depletion. 

Links to Explore Further

• Paul Fairweather
• Paul Fairweather on LinkedIn
• The Common Creative Podcast

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