START
MORE
THAN YOU CAN
FINISH
A creative permission slip
to unleash your best ideas
START
MORE
THAN YOU CAN
FINISH
A creative permission slip
to unleash your best ideas
START
MORE
THAN YOU CAN
FINISH
Named a MUST READ by The Next Big Idea Club!
Start More Than You Can Finish has been named a ‘MUST READ’ by The Next Big Idea Club, and nominated as one of the club’s selections for study. Currated by Malcolm Gladwell, Adam Grant, Susan Cain, and Daniel Pink, the Next Big Idea Club selects and studies “the most essential nonfiction books of the year.”
A bold, fresh mindset that will change the way you treat your creative longings.
What if that unexplored idea would have changed everything?
What if you had started the thing you wanted to make instead of waiting for the someday that never came? Becky Blades, an artist, entrepreneur, writer and self-defined “stARTist,” wants to save us from such questions. In Start More Than You Can Finish, Blades shows us the way to a regret-free “stARTistic” life — by acting on our ideas sooner, faster, better and more often.
Start More Than You Can Finish is charged with epiphanies and inspiration that will touch each reader uniquely. But the most potent takeaway is universal: When we act on an idea, it shows us the way — to the next step, to unknown finishes, to new ideas and to personal fulfillment we cannot fathom until we begin.
In her buoyant voice, Blades unwraps weighty facts and uplifting wisdom. Blades shows how starting more … before we’re certain, before we’re fearless, before we have everything we need to finish … is the secret to creative success.
Whether you want to tell a story, birth an artwork, launch a business, or recreate a life, this book may be the coach, muse, and permission you’ve been craving.
In Start More Than You Can Finish, Blades draws on hundreds of interviews with stARTists plus research in neuroscience, creativity and behavioral science to arrive at a fresh take on starting and finishing.
Real-life examples from creators of all stripes — inventors, artists, chefs, writers, business innovators, teachers, song writers, speakers, gardeners and more — inspire hard hitting observations about how we get and move ideas.
Blades’ discoveries tee up a simple four-part starting process — a framework to shift our thinking from a one-at-a-time, finish-as-planned model to a shame-free, start-where-you-are mindset that lets ideas lead the way.
Ultimately, the book proves that in today’s world, we must, in fact, START MORE. Certainly more than we can finish.
Listen to podcasts about Start More Than You Can Finish
Here’s what stARTists are saying about Start More Than You Can Finish
“Blades provides tips for pursuing one’s passions in this animated guide. …She entreats readers to keep their imagination active…and suggests that false starts can inspire new ideas, “exercise” creative muscles, and offer a “healthy diversion.” The fun line drawings, also by Blades, nicely complement her peppy prose (“Starting makes us happy. But that’s just the beginning”). The result is a spunky case for not following through.”
Publishers Weekly
“A buoyant guide to getting things begun — and a liberating reminder that they don’t all need to get done. If you’ve ever hesitated to launch an idea or a project, this book could be the fuel you need.”
Adam Grant
#1 New York Times bestselling author of THINK AGAIN and host of the TED podcast WorkLife
“A joyous corrective to all the nay-saying voices in your life — and more importantly, the ones in your head. Becky Blades is your wise and funny guide through the rough terrain of creative work. If you’ve ever wanted a bit of cheerleading as you faced down your artistic bugbears, this is for you (it’s definitely for me!)”
Emily Flake
Humorist and cartoonist for The New Yorker, author of That Was Awkward and Mama Tried
“The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single . . . book! And this is it. A delightful and spirited defense of the notion that doing is more important than being done.”
Daniel Gilbert
Edgar Pierce Professor of Psychology, Harvard University; author of the New York Times bestseller Stumbling on Happiness; host of the PBS television series This Emotional Life
“Start More Than You Can Finish reveals a surprisingly productive mindset: no matter how uncertain we might be about the finish, we flourish by acting on our ideas right away and trusting the creative process. This book will inspire you to get started already!”
Scott Barry Kaufman
Host of The Psychology Podcast, author of Transcend, founder, Center for Human Potential
“Becky Blades is a creative force with the answers to all your excuses. I do whatever she tells me to do, and you should, too. Start More Than You Can Finish will have you starting things that scare you and wondering what took you so long.”
Jen Mann
New York Times bestselling author of People I Want to Punch in the Throat and MidLife Bites
“Almost anybody interested in getting more done will find great ideas here. Simply the most important new book on productivity I have seen.”
Henry J. DeVries
Forbes.com columnist and co-author of How To Close a Deal Like Warren Buffett
“In the same voice of caring, supportive nurturing that made Do Your Laundry or You’ll Die Alone delightful nuggets of chocolate-covered carrots, this book is candy for the soul and nutrition for the mind. A full-meal read that keeps you wanting just one more bite … until you’re full of creative sparks. Yum!”
Barbara C. Unell
Best-selling author of Discipline with Love and Limits, founder, Raised with Love and Limits Foundation
“You may be surprised to learn that prior to the pandemic, new business creation in the United States had basically been flat for many years. Can this reluctance to begin, to leap and to take business and other creative risks be partially traced back to all the messages we receive starting from our early childhood that we must finish everything we start? What if that’s not the best advice? Serial starter (and finisher of many successful endeavors), Becky Blades, masterfully shows us another way; that our worth is not measured by what we finish but rather by what we start; that we are the sum of our imaginings and the ideas we act upon. Start More Than You Can Finish will guide you to ignite all your ideas.”
Rania Anderson
Global DEI speaker, author of WE: Men, Women and the Decisive Formula for Winning at Work and Undeterred
“Becky Blades, author of the perky, popular advice book, Do Your Laundry or You’ll Die Alone, has done it again with Start More Than You Can Finish. Her fresh, potent advice: Let’s help our young people become unstoppable by showing them how to start — honoring their ideas and initiative … reframing their focus on finishing … and trusting the creative process.”
Lisa Heffernan
Co-Founder, Grown & Flown media, New York Times bestselling author of Goldman Sachs: The Culture of Success and Grown & Flown
“We all reach turning points in life where we feel called to begin anew, to reinvent ourselves for the next stage. Start More Than You Can Finish gives us a permission slip to seize these moments joyfully, fearlessly.”
Mary Dell Harrington
Co-Founder, Grown & Flown media, author of Grown & Flown: How to Support Your Teen, Stay Close as a Family, and Raise Independent Adults
“Becky Blades provides an inspiring path for everyone to unleash their ‘right to start’ and pursue their dreams. Start More Than You Can Finish shows that being an entrepreneur is something that anyone can do — every individual can move from ideas to action, and thus improve their lives and those of others around them. Anyone who has thought about starting their own thing should read this book, but so should leaders, educators, and policymakers who want to understand the entrepreneurial mindset.”
Victor W. Hwang
Founder & CEO, Right to Start, author of The Rain Forest: The Secret to Building the Next Silicone Valley
“As a writer, I know the intimidation of the blank page, of having to start an article or a chapter and having it seem impossible. In this practical and delightful book, Becky Blades shows me, and all of us, how to start on whatever blank page life presents.”
Victoria Moran
author, Creating a Charmed Life, host The Victoria Moran Podcast
“I had the pleasure of sharing a stage with Becky Blades at a women’s business event. Her work is a seamless integration of practical, actionable strategies while honoring the creative potential that lives inside everyone – even if they don’t consider themselves to be creative. As a therapist who consistently sees people get stuck in fear of starting more than they can finish, it is a breath of fresh air to have this book to hand out. Not only does Becky give permission to start more than you can finish, she encourages the practice – and effectively obliterates the freeze state that prevents many people from doing what they want to do.”
Britt Frank
Psychotherapist, MSW, LSCSW, SEP, author of The Science of Stuck
You’ll love these reviews from a whole startistic family!
“Start More Than You Can Finish is a fresh, fun rallying cry, directing us to be the courageous, curious creators we were meant to be. Becky Blades shows us how our family of stARTists can start more, finish better and power-up the creative process. It confirms that the startist’s life is the only life for me!”
Diana Kander
Entrepreneur, New York Times best selling author of All-In Start Up and The Curiosity Muscle
“The message is clear: the power is in the ignition. Start More Than You Can Finish unpacks inspiring truth about creating.”
Jason Kander
Author of Outside the Wire and Invisible Storm: A Soldier’s Memoir of Politics and PTSD
“Writing books takes courage, but if you ask for help getting started, you can do almost anything. (Becky let me paint with a mop on a refrigerator box.)”
True Kander (age 8)
Author of Courage Is
MEDIA
For media inquiries, please contact Michelle Triant, 510-504-0431, michelle_triant@chroniclebooks.com.
MEDIA
For media inquiries, please contact Michelle Triant, 510-504-0431, michelle_triant@chroniclebooks.com.
