Choose you collaborators carefully.

I’ve always believed in collaboration. It elevates my work. It adds depth. It fuels breakthroughs.

I used to call it the crucible. We add lots of ingredients and mash them together. We find new ways of doing things. It’s more fun than wrecking your head in an empty room.

Unless it doesn’t work. Then it blows up. You look foolish with a sooty face and singed eyebrows. And worse. You wasted time. You went a long way down a dead end.

That kind of wreck can suck you dry and leave you toting a barrel-full of self-doubt.

But collaboration is worth the risk. The best work I’ve ever done, the work that breaks through and sets the world on fire, was with collaborators.

I call it being in the Crucible, because it’s a chemical process. It’s a mashing of disparate personalities. And it burns. But when it goes right.

So seek out collaborators, but be cautious. It’s a lot easier to get into collaborations than out. And don’t lose yourself in the collaborative maze. The best partners are the ones who want you to be yourself.

Originally published at https://www.christophermchale.com on August 5, 2020.