My son is in his final few weeks of school and is contemplating applying to study design at college. He has a natural talent, so my fingers are crossed for him.

Thing is I worry that his slackadasical teenage attitude may hold him back, as I know that design is a discipline that requires exactly that – discipline.

Yesterday he brought home what I thought was his folio. Turns out it was his experiments, concepts and workings for a corporate identity project.

Now I’d have thought something like that would have required a handful of sketches and

concepts before pressing on with the final design. Turns out that’s not the case.

He has literally dozens of scribbles, thoughts, ideas, ideas he has rejected, notations etc.

So the school is instilling in him the discipline of pursuing and exploring multiple ideas.

Which is just brilliant.

But what about you?

Do you explore as multiple angles and ideas in your concepts? Or do you stop once you’ve got an idea or answer you’re happy with?

If it’s the former my advice is to continue doing it, as this is how you achieve greatness.

If it is the latter however, you are selling yourself short.

Hard work is the key to success. So stop reading this and get back to work.