The mistake that kills most creative careers (and how to avoid it)

Notes on giants - Number 23

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🏷️ Categories: Creativity, Mental models, Life lessons.

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For the artist, creating something of value is a matter of patience, not talent.

And yet, we live in a world that rewards immediacy. For artists, that translates into suffocating pressure: if you don’t stand out after three attempts, maybe you “don’t have what it takes.” That lie is dangerous. History shouts the opposite: great works weren’t born in a flash, but along a journey that spanned decades.

Photographer Arno Rafael Minkkinen explained this with brutal honesty in 2006, in an unforgettable speech to the students of the New England School of Photography. There, he shared an idea that can shape your artistic path forever.

The Helsinki Bus Station Theory.

If you apply it, you’ll never again doubt your work—you’ll know your artistic path with clarity.

1. The Helsinki Bus Station

I want you to picture the scene.

In the center of Helsinki there is a huge bus station, with dozens of platforms. Each one sends out several buses—more than a hundred in total. For the first kilometer, they all go down the same street and stop at the same stations.

These are the stops that everyone passes through. This idea is important—don’t forget it.

Minkkinen told his students: every bus stop represents a year of your creative life. You get on bus 21 and spend three years photographing black-and-white nudes. You excitedly present your work… and someone reminds you that Irving Penn already did that. Or you try to sell your photos and they say: “Have you seen Bill Brandt? Your work looks too similar.”

It hurts. You feel like those three years were wasted.

And what do you do?

You get off the bus at the third stop and take a taxi back to the station.

You get off at the third stop, take a taxi back, and start another route. Three years later, the same story. Another critic, another comparison, another disappointment. That cycle can repeat itself for an entire lifetime. You move a lot, but progress little. And you wonder with a tired sigh: Is it worth continuing?

Minkkinen stopped his story, looked at the students, and said something unforgettable:

“Stay on the bus! Stay on the damn bus and don’t get off!”

Lesson 1: The Gradual Divergence

All buses follow the same initial path.

But after a few kilometers, they start to separate. Bus 21 turns north, 71 goes southwest, 58 takes an unexpected curve. Each one finds its own way.

The same thing happens with creative work.

At the beginning, your work inevitably resembles that of your influences. It’s natural—you chose that route because you admired them. But if you endure the journey, your path slowly diverges. Nuances appear, differences, small sparks that make you unique. And over time, those differences become your personal signature.

The whole journey makes sense.

You won’t reach the last stops without passing the first ones.

Lesson 2: Is success just about persistence?

Here’s where the story gets tough.

We all know daily practice matters. We’ve seen the huge impact of deliberate practice and habits. But in his speech, Minkkinen takes it one step further. It’s not only about whether you show up every day.

It’s about how long you’re willing to keep doing it.

Every time you switch buses, you reset the clock. You accumulate hours, yes—but never enough on the same road for something truly your own to emerge. Isaac Asimov wrote over 150 science fiction novels. Asimov never got off the bus.

Progress isn’t about trying a thousand different routes.

It’s about riding one to the very end.

And there’s more.

Lesson 3: The Value of Risk

“Art is risk made visible. The audience needs to see the risk we are willing to take to create the art we make.” — Arno Rafael Minkkinen

For him, as a photographer, risk meant that you could tell he had stepped into freezing waters, climbed a cliff, buried himself in snow to achieve an impossible shot. Minkkinen rejected Photoshop and assistants because he wanted the risk to be real—not a simulation.

And what does that mean for us?

That creating something meaningful requires risk.

• Risking time on a project no one will understand until much later.

• Risking your reputation by doing something strange when everyone expects the safe choice.

• Risking your comfort by not choosing the obvious path.

Most people flee from risk, because humans are wired to crave the comfortable and predictable—we hate failing and doubting. But Minkkinen (and thousands of other artists) show that the true failure is getting off the bus too soon.

Staying on until the last stop is the greatest guarantee of success. That is persistence.

Lesson 4: You Don’t Need to Be #1

Even if you stay on the bus, even if you find your unique vision, there will always be bus routes better than yours—make peace with that.

There will always be someone more famous, more awarded, more celebrated.

Minkkinen explained it with a moving image: at the end of your career, when you look back, you’ll see that you climbed a huge mountain. You’re proud. But when you turn your head, you notice even higher peaks—mountains you never saw at the start.

So what do you do then?

You have three options:

1. Feel jealousy and bitterness because you never climbed as high.

2. Inflate yourself with pride and live arrogantly, pretending to be what you’re not.

3. Look at the whole landscape and enjoy the privileged view you’ve earned.

The first option robs you of peace.
The second robs you of relationships.
The third gives you something few ever reach: to be satisfied with your legacy.

You don’t need to be the most awarded artist in the world. You don’t need to be the bestseller of the year. What you need is to look at your journey, your risks, your battles, and be able to say: “I gave it everything. I stayed on the bus. And I found my vision.”

That legacy will last forever.

Getting off the bus will not.

✍️ Your turn: What project of yours deserves more time and patience before you decide whether it “works” or not?

💭 Quote of the day: “Stay in your own lane. Comparison kills creativity and joy.” — Brené Brown, Rising Strong

See you next time! 👋

References 📚

1. Minkkinen, A. R. (2013, March). The Helsinki Bus Station Theory: Finding Your Own Vision in Photography. PetaPixel. URL