The single Italian word which says so much about creative work
Every so often, I encounter a word that perfectly summarizes something I've been trying to say to the world. This week, it was a little Italian concept, which is perfect, because so am I.
The concept is sprezzatura.
While the literal translation is actually "studied carelessness," the meaning is far more powerful to me. The word has come to mean "accomplishing difficult tasks while hiding the effort that went into them." I like a simpler, more colloquial way of saying it:
Making hard things looks easy. Sprezzatura.
I first discovered the word when checking the Instagram bio of a chef friend of mine, Mike Lombardi. We went to high school together, and he's gone on to start two incredible Italian restaurants in the Boston area. (If you ever get the chance, run don't walk to eat at both SRV and Si Cara.) In Mike's bio, there's just one word. Sprezzatura.
That sent me down a rabbit hole of research and reflection, and I'm here to present my findings. This one is for my fellow word nerds!
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This says so much.
In addition to being a powerful concept to understand (more on that shortly), it's also really freaking fun to say.
Sprezzatura.
For the unfamiliar, the double-z in Italian sounds like "-ts" in English. That's why mozzarella is pronounced "MOTS-a-rella" and not "MOZZZZZZ-a-rella." Though real ones simply say moots.
Sprezzatura is pronounced "SPRETS-a-toora." Like I said, it's just plain fun to say. But it's even more fun to learn about and inspiring to pursue. Think about its meaning for a second: making hard things look easy. Is there any better signal of mastery of craft? Is there any better way to impress an audience, a prospect, a client, a peer? Is there any better feeling as a creator? I'll answer all of these in Italian:
No.
I think about speeches I give. Yes, it feels really good to be good at something that others find difficult in general, but it's the little moments and moves which get me geek-level excited to make a difficult thing look effortless. To me as a performer, storyteller, and teacher, there's no better feeling than knowing every little move I can make on stage and what reactions will come of it—all while others assume I'm doing it for the first time on stage.
I know that one somber moment of that one story will make the room quiet—an "extra-quiet" kind of quiet which can only be experienced when hundreds or thousands of people in a room stay silent simultaneously. No better feeling.
I know that one joke will trigger a few awkward chuckles at first, but then if I hold it a bit, the punchline really arrives, and the laughter will roll. I also know if I acknowledge how bad the joke was, I'll get a second round of laughter. I've figured that out! That's crazy to me! That's insanely addicting to understand and to experience!
I know that ranty section in the middle of my talk—the one where I emulate what it feels like to do marketing and create content on the internet today—will trigger a mid-speech applause break. Are you serious right now?! We can intentionally do this stuff as creators? Yes! It's hard, but we can make it look easy, as I run out of breath to end my rant, stick the landing using a callback from the start of it, and keel over, panting, while people applaud. (I've done this 9 times in front of live crowds. I'm 9 for 9 in applause breaks.)
The thing is, regardless of what YOU do creatively, YOU have similar things you've mastered. YOU make things others find difficult look oh-so-effortless, and those are the things which make YOU feel magnetic to THEM. The think, "Oh my goodness, they're amazing. I want to spend time with them. I need to talk to them, follow them, hire them, tell others about them."
Sprezzatura: Making hard things look easy.
Since learning this word, I've seen it show up everywhere. Of course, I see it through the work you and I do, but it applies to any professional at the top of their game.
For instance, I'm a huge sports fan. Ever watch an NBA player warming up? Steph Curry can casually hit a full-court shot before heading back into the locker room. Or how about during the game? Jalen Brunson can slither and slice his way between three defenders, all a foot taller than him, making them careen wildly towards the floor, as he casually flips the ball through the hoop.
Sprezzatura.
Ever see Simone Biles sprint and leap and flip across the floor? Allegedly, we are both human beings, when in reality, she is a literal superhero, and I sprained my shoulder sleeping wrong. She's the human equivalent of a shock-absorbent spring. Meanwhile, spring in Boston makes me sneeze hard enough, my back gives out.
Sprezzatura.
Ever witness a gorgeous swing from a home run hitter? Aaron Judge or Shohei Ohtani make hundreds of choices in a fraction of a second for whether and how to swing at a white blur screaming at 100 miles an hour towards their bodies ... then they casually crush the ball 500 feet the other way into the night, all with an impossible air of nonchalance.
Sprezzatura.
It's not just sports either. How about musicians? Yo-Yo Ma is clearly an alien sent here for one purpose: to play an extraterrestrial version of what we humans call a cello, equipped with a technology capable of transporting your soul into the cosmos. Meanwhile, my father-in-law tells stories of banishing my wife to the bathroom to practice as a child. Also, can someone please tell me how Adele can make those sounds with the same organs I have in my upper respiratory system?Ever watch Lindsey Stirling perform? She plays violin and dances with such extreme skill and an energy level I can only describe as "fastforwarding a video of a squirrel on cocaine." She does this for hours on-end, with energy to spare. Then you see me, walking up a slight hill while talking on the phone for 30 seconds. "You... you talk now, Dad. I need... a break. Or ... or the hospital."
From athletes to artists, speakers to writers, surgeons to chefs, parents to landscapers—anyone who has truly mastered what they do seem to possess a kind of superhuman sorcery mere mortals can't understand, as these people ply their trades and deliver moments capable of inspiring legions of fans and lasting change. How?
Sprezzatura.
They make hard things look easy.
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The surprising history of the word.
The term itself is often attributed to a guy named Baldassare Castiglione, though the idea is far older.
Castiglione was a Renaissance era author. He was the Count of Casatico and an influential voice in the early 16th century around various European courts, thanks to his book il Cortegiano or "The Book of the Courtier," which talks about the etiquette and morality of people who attended royal court as a king or queen's companion or advisor.
But again, the idea predates the word itself.
Cicero practiced sprezzatura in his orations—an idea Stoics call neglentia diligens, or "studied negligence."
The ancient Roman poet Ovid, writing centuries before Castiglione and likely inspiring his thinking, once wrote, "Ars est celare artem" ("the purpose of art is to conceal itself").
Aristotle talked about something similar to the concept with his idea of "the golden mean," which says that true excellence lives in the space between extremes, never straining toward either edge. (I think about this idea a lot when it comes to confidence, strength, and power. As a man, I believe these things are carried calmly. If you have true confidence, strength, or power, you don't need to be showy or loud about it—an idea many men, especially public-facing men, need to remember. The more aggressive and insistent they get, the less confidence, strength, or power they actually possess. Never forget that.)
Anyway, back to Castiglione, the 16th-century consigliere to courtiers. (That was a fun sentence. Please thank your eyeballs for looking at it.) The Book of the Courtier was written as a series of conversations among courtiers debating the qualities of the ideal nobleman. Castiglione gave language to a quality his cohort had long admired but never tried to define—something influential voices often do (hint, hint). He called it "a certain nonchalance, so as to conceal all art and make whatever one does or says appear to be without effort and almost without any thought about it." This quality was declared the one universal rule of graceful behavior. Sprezzatura.
Then the idea spread across Europe. (Castiglione was an OG memelord.)
(Don't worry, I also hated that joke.)
Raphael tried to embody sprezzatura in his paintings. Mannerist sculptors like Cellini pursued the ideal in bronze. Shakespeare and Ben Jonson wove it into their scripts and characters, and yes I did cackle to myself writing a line like, "Raphael, Cellini, Shakespeare, Ben Jonson."
Sprezzatura also has close cousins in other languages. In French, you might say je ne sais quoi to describe a certain effortless or ineffable quality or essence. In Japanese, the word iki refers to something chic or stylish but subtly so, without revealing the effort that normally goes into making something chic or stylish.
Eventually, the Oxford English Dictionary defined Castiglione's idea as "studied carelessness." But it's so much more powerful than that. As with all words, the meaning matters more than the definition, and sometimes, the two aren't identical.
Sprezzatura: Making hard things look easy.
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Why this matters so much.
I think this one word ought to be our constant goal. In our work, we aim to master hard things, make what matters, and solve important problems through what we create. We're here to resonate with others, not just reach them, to change their perspective and spark reflection and action. In our pursuit of mastery and results, sprezzatura is the crowning achievement. (Get it? Because courts.)
To me, sprezzatura isn't just the goal. It's the dream. You see, most sane human beings see the works of their heroes and think "Amazing! Wow, they make that look so easy. But that's so hard. I could never." That's a rational reaction to incredible people and their best work. But as creators and leaders and public voices, you and I have a different reaction. We those same people and their best work, and we are inspired enough and delusional enough to say, "Amazing! Wow, they make that look so easy. And I'm going to do that too."
Right now, there's something you do which others find difficult. Have you figured that out?
Forget being the only one who does it or even the best who does it. If you were in a room of 100 people you wanted to serve, what could you easily do which they find hard? This very question helped me turn my business around. (I'm not the best speaker in the world, but I'm almost always the best speaker in the room.)
Or ask another question:
"What are the most impressive people in my network most impressed by, coming from me?"
That one little Italian idea has such a big impact on your work AND your ability to grow a business and a career. People gravitate towards you, remember you, refer you. It helps you stop chasing attention and be the one others seek. You can get out of your head and merely be in the world. You can embody your ideas and hand them to others to have a real impact in the world.
It's the goal. It's the dream. It's the work.
As any true professional understands, making hard things look easy is the only real sign of true mastery. That's why we test and tinker. It's why we knowingly produce messy drafts and then work tirelessly to fix them. We gnaw and claw and scratch and snarl and sometimes skip and dance and twirl and laugh our way through all this ridiculous stuff which is required of us to be creative. It's why we endure all the trial-and-error, which can't be skipped, despite anyone selling you any kind of shortcut. It's all so that eventually, for even just a single golden moment, we feel what it's like to make hard things look easy.
We rehearse the talk, write articles to no one, shoot video that goes nowhere, and practice our craft. We work tirelessly at work worth doing—work that is difficult. Because eventually, we make it look easy. But we know the truth. We know what it took to get here. Which is why we proceed with confidence, clarity, and the ability to charge what we're worth.
When we can make hard things look easy, we see the journey. Others just see magic.
Don't be fooled. The path is hard. But the results are undeniable, and the feelings you experience are intoxicating.
Watch what I can do.
Watch what mastery looks like.
Watch THIS.
Sprezzatura.