4 Simple Reasons Why You Won’t Find This in Any Growth Hacker Playbook
Box Cutter Co. Free Issue No. 86
Most systems train you to wait your turn.
To seek approval
To raise your hand
To follow instructions
They reward you for solving problems you didn’t choose.
For staying quiet. For succeeding inside pre-approved guidelines.
You get good at showing your work to people who grade it, evaluate it, give it a ‘pass.’
You get good at asking before acting. Good at not going off-script.
And then— one day, the script is gone.
You leave the institution or system or move out from beneath the gatekeepers. Or, they move you out (“cutbacks”, “reorg”, etc.).
You start building your own paths. You try writing, creating, sharing, or building something… from (and for) yourself.
But something feels stuck. You hesitate.
You wait (without realizing you’re still waiting).
Is it because you are waiting for someone to say:
“You’re allowed”
“You’re ready now”
“You have permission”?
Only…………… no one’s coming. It’s you.
The Myths of Creative Permission
Most of us have been trained to believe that creative work begins with an invitation.
A job description
An assignment
A credential
A title
That you need “a degree” before you can teach. And you will repeatedly read online the quasi-permission experts that you need:
A platform before you can speak
A publisher before you can write
An audience before you can share
A following before your ideas are valid
We’re taught you can’t go until someone says “go.”
Your voice needs to be chosen to matter.
You must have ‘signal’ (meaning likes, impressions, followers…) before you create more.
But most of this is Bullshit.
Creative work is often a subtraction process (not addition, not more).
Creative work often begins with a refusal
A refusal to wait.
A refusal to stay in inherited roles.
A refusal to believe someone else needs to say “yes” before you begin.
Creative work doesn’t ask for permission.
It moves when you move.
It listens when you speak.
It reveals itself not to the qualified, but to the curiously committed.
To the persistent
To the relentlessly resilient
Creativity and creative work often start mid-thought, mid-doubt, mid-life. It’s built in fragments and posted before it’s perfect.
Drawn out slowly (or quickly) in public, awkwardly, messily—honestly, and real.
👉 You write the first line.
👉 You post half-formed ideas.
👉 You move before you feel qualified.
It’s actually a slippery truth behind every creator who looks “confident” or “successful.”
They simply pushed through the discomfort more often, and
They stopped waiting for permission
This requires a mind shift. It requires preparing the mind (and body) to feel some fear, and do it anyway.
— (the title of a popular 1980s self-help book by Susan Jeffers)
The Quiet Work of Belief-Shifting
After three years of engaging in “The Creator Economy” — and its subset: “The Business Creator Economy” — I have seen some patterns.
These patterns indicate most people on social media platforms are lurkers — the vast majority.
Then there are the fits-and-starts posters. One post per week, which on LinkedIn, is often providing free marketing for an employer. (Such an odd practice, when you break it down)
Then, a tiny percentage are actively creating and posting every week. Some every day. And, connected to what they are working on, building, learning, and intending.
(Creative enterprises)
Even within this small percentage of active creatives, many still wait for a signal. Wait for signs of ‘permission’:
Likes
Reposts
Subscribers
Impressions
A favourable algorithm blip
A dopamine hit translated into “permission granted!”
But when you’re building, creating and posting more on the Non-obvious side of things:
Work that doesn’t cater to trends,
That cuts across categories or slows the scroll
You won’t get applause right away. Signals. Virality.
You may hear nothing at all. Crickets. Silence. The sound of one hand clapping…
And that’s where the mindset shift lives
To keep going anyway. Not blindly, not stubbornly ignorant. But with some persistence and faith (based on reflection) that others are thinking about similar things.
Maybe they are struggling or doubting, and potentially needing to read (or hear) precisely what you post.
This means not measuring your resonance or effectiveness by the first wave, nor even the second, third or fourth. It can mean:
Trust the work.
Let longer time frames be part of your signal catching.
The system teaches you to expect results. Often, Fast!
Many folks post on social media about the ‘rules’ or the guidelines, or ‘this is how you do it.’
And, so if you’re earlier in your journey, or you post in the Non-obvious realms, you start feeling and saying:
“I must be doing something wrong!”
Then the thoughts of “rebranding” begin. “Changing my niche.”
“I must be posting at the wrong time of day.”
“My posts are too long.”
“Too short.”
Slow down. Breathe. Consider for a moment… big wave surfers.
Sometimes big wave surfers wait a year or more for the just the right conditions, at the right place, at the right time.
This doesn’t mean they sit idly. They continue to surf, train, and prepare. They also study, watch, listen, synthesize, and collaborate to hit the right spots at the right moments.
You don’t start surfing, then jump into big waves.
You level up over the years. You apprentice. You train. You watch, you learn.
Creativity can be similar. Creative enterprises are no different.
It asks you to listen and watch more deeply, and in time frames which social media and algorithms do not recognize (or ‘reward’)
Creative enterprises take time.
Creativity requires time.
And this time it’s taking, is also in an ever-shifting environment.
What You Can Do
Start small!
This is almost always the answer.
Post a half-finished idea.
Be the niche. Be the anomaly.
Be the quiet one who shows up anyway.
Share thoughts on what you’re building.
Don’t wait for the green light—be the signal.
And if you feel resistance? That’s normal. (It would actually be odd if you didn’t feel resistance).
Creative work will often not feel like a reward right away. (Sometimes it can feel downright abrasive, full of friction, and a little painful)
It asks for deeper reasons.
It relies on intrinsic motivation—clear, steady, and self-sourced. But it will shape you. Sharpen your thinking. Clarify your values.
It reveals what you care enough about to keep doing, even when no one is watching. This is the difference between promoting/broadcasting and creating.
Between chasing validation and building something that will last.
So, if you’re waiting, pause and ask:
What exactly am I waiting for?
And who told me I needed their “Yes”?
Because you have the pen, you can post into the permissionless economy. It’s called “The Creator Economy” or maybe better yet: “The Creative Economy.”
You are allowed. Write anyway.
Say it.
Sketch it
Post it.
Build it.
No permission required.
The Box Cutter Co. example
Box Cutter Co. has just under 900 subscribers, and thankfully has up to 10 paid subscribers recently.
In the eyes of many, that’s slow.
“What’s your ROI?” they might ask.
“You’re not even making pennies per hour!”
But that’s the wrong metric. This isn’t a funnel. It’s not a path to virality or riches.
It’s a sandbox.
It’s a foundation.
It’s a place to practice in public.
It’s also a body of work. A creative ecosystem.
It’s long-term signals, where I think aloud, show up without certainty, and build systems for myself first—then share them so others might do the same. (In a way that works for them)
It’s creative infrastructure for the next decade, not a sprint for short-term rocketing growth.
Here are some things I’ve found matter to me (maybe they do for you too?):
Create (and post) before feeling qualified.
The best ideas rarely show up when you’re waiting. They show up when you’re moving.Post the unfinished.
I’ve done this nearly every week—writing before it’s perfect, publishing before it’s obvious. That’s how ideas and thinking sharpen. It’s learning in motion.Build without a signal.
The silence is data. So is your persistence. Over time, the right people find you—and stay.
This is the kind of work most systems don’t prepare you for.
This is the kind of work forcing mindset shifts.
But it’s the work that lasts. It’s work with so much meaning.
4 Simple Reasons Why You Won’t Find This in Growth Hacker Playbooks
1. Slow isn’t sexy
Most growth strategies rely on urgency, speed, and immediate return. But meaningful creative work (often in Non-obvious realms) moves at slower frequencies. The kind that compounds quietly. The kind that lasts.
2. There’s no guaranteed ROI
Not in the beginning. Not for a while. Because this isn’t transactional—it’s foundational. The “return” is clarity, depth, resilience, and systems that can support you for the next decade. And, it’s not all monetary metrics.
3. It’s not designed for virality
Box Cutter Co. isn’t designed to chase trends. It’s intended to challenge assumptions. It sits in complexity and uncertainty.
4. It builds something you can’t fake
Consistency. Thoughtfulness. Integrity. You can’t hack those. You can only live them, build with them, and trust they will connect with the right people, over time.
How about you?
👉 What are you working on without permission?
👉 What could you start working on if you stopped waiting for permission?
Watch over the next few days for the next post for paid subscribers with more of the “How?”
Thanks for reading this far. Did this land with you, please share out broadly. Leave a comment.
A "creative ecosystem" is dynamic. It is not a static blueprint to follow as done before. Find your "sandbox" and explore the peaks and valleys. And remember that the winds may blow you in new directions unknown.