Book Review: Pocket Full of Do by Chris Do
Marketed as the “business book for creatives.” Pocket Full of Do encapsulates over two decades of reflections and observations on entrepreneurship, creativity, philosophy, and more. You’ll get a retrospective glimpse into the life of a creative business owner, and the lessons learned along the way.
If you feel stuck, need a jolt of inspiration, a dose of motivation, or simply an aha moment, then reach for Pocket Full of Do.
My thoughts on Pocket Full of Do
I’d heard great things about this book so I was hyped to read it, and the marketing on Chris’ website definitely cemented that thought in my mind. I think that may be why my initial thoughts were a little disappointing. Chris Do’s posts on social media, specifically Instagram where I follow him the most, are mainly posts curated by him but are written by others. He’s got specialists to teach about their niche and curates them into one place. Which is essentially what Pocket Full of Do is, so really I shouldn’t have been disappointed.
“Surround yourself with people who are optimistic, driven, curious, and open minded.”
The book is set out in 7 parts: relationships, creativity, beliefs, pricing, sales & negotiation, marketing, and mindset. While most ideas felt a little samey samey, there were a few ideas that stood out to me.
“Teach what you know. Teach while you learn.”
This part about the ‘best way to learn is to teach’ is what I love doing, it’s what this blog is based around. I enjoy reading books like the Pocket Full of Do to learn and pass on my knowledge. I enjoy learning how to do things like brush lettering so I can teach someone else the best tricks.
“Rather than measure your worth by what you produce, measure your happiness by the progress that you’ve made.””
“Selling is about serving others… “you are excited about something. You want another person to be as excited as you are about the same thing.””
This is why I do what I do. I sell products that I love and would buy myself. I produce art and blog posts that I myself would enjoy. While you can always create for the market, for the trends, you may not always attract the right audience. But, if you focus on what you want to create and enjoy then you’ll attract like minded people who are more likely to stick around and enjoy your work for years to come.
“We don’t need more inspiration.”
This idea resonated with me a lot. The idea that we’re constantly consuming others' amazing work, that often we may feel like this is where we should be aiming. That reading books just like the Pocket Full of Do boosts our creativity and sparks inspiration but unless we’re doing something with that spark we may as well not consume the inspiration. “You must take action. Action is where the magic lies.” I myself will be working harder to consume less and do more action with the inspiration I do consume. I know personally this will be hard, but I’ll get there eventually.
“Ideas paired with action and follow through are a potent combination. Ideas alone are worthless.”
Final thoughts on Pocket Full of Do
While it definitely fuelled my creativity, there were parts I felt were a little lacking. As a big chunk of the book is made up of quotes from other people, some parts felt like they were missing substance.
Particularly as each idea or point is kept on a single page, it sometimes felt that there should be a paragraph more to finish off the idea but because there was no page left it was cut. I wanted to know more about a topic ya know? But because there was no space left we moved onto the next topic. I guess it could be used as a jumping off point to look more into certain ideas that sparked.
However, the section on pricing would be super useful to a new freelancer as it goes through the three main ways of pricing and into the positives and negatives of each.
“Travel fast, but travel in the right direction. Otherwise, it’s all wasted energy.”
Don’t get me wrong, I did enjoy the book and definitely felt sparks of inspiration. I just don’t feel like I’m going to reach for it again if I’m in a creative slump. I think I’ll still reach for Austin Kleon’s trio of books instead. Why don’t you try it out for yourself, let me know what you think, you can find digital and physical copies of Chris’ book on his website.
- Sophie
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