Friday, Apr. 16, 2010 - 11:25 p.m.
Inspiring Confession
*********************
I found this amazing confession about living in the creative world
on the web and edited it for clarity. The writer is a mature Singapore graphic artist whos' English is spotty
but their insight/overview is right on
..........
Some day, our markets will come.
I abandoned drawing and doing stupid flash animations about 3 years ago.
.
i abandoned playing the guitar for 5 years.
These were all things that I enjoyed. So the first question any sane, curious person who thinks she/he has common sense will ask is:
So WTF (why the fuck)
did you abandon
doing the things you like?
Good question! Why the fuck did i?
The answer is because I was greedy.
I wanted more of these things
than the simple pleasure they gave me.
I wanted to be famous.
I wanted money.
I wanted to make a living out of
doing this silly shit.
Just like all those successful artists and inspiring people.
But it was more than being greedy.
I was also impatient.
The rewards of doing my fun and silly things never came.
I never made money.
I can't make a living out of this.
And i had to make a living.
So the natural progression
and first place to start for any creative person
was to go into the creative industry.
And that's sort of when I gave myself up.
Because the industry chews me up.
I basically gave up doing my silly, unique things that is me,
to become a person who tries to do "unique" things for an industry with its own formats and rules.
The message i want to get across is,
these creators with their current success, never did whatever shit they were passionate about because they thought it would bring them fame and fortune.
They just kept doing it
because they enjoyed it.
A hobby besides their main job.
Just for fun and giggles.
They didn't really think about making money or the kind of thinking that says try to make your passion your job. They didn't change their creative output to suit whatever market is out there now.
To be sure, they didn't follow the rules of the market. Because there was no market to begin with.
No Market...No Rules.
And somehow, the universe has its own set of Rules. Perhaps it's, "Go create what you like, enjoy and improve it, and if enough people like what you create, they will pay you to continue creating." I sure hope so
So now, the question is If the market for your passion has not been invented yet, what's to stop you from doing it?
Ordinary people, creators or craftsmen just follow their passion, sort of as a hobby.
They have one thing in common:
They just love doing what they do.
They do it even though they are not making money from it. Yet.
Mine is a pragmatic society. Almost everything you do , especially even those remotely creative things like doodling, dreaming or taking photos, people will ask you if you can monetise it somehow. Make a business out of it.
We know they mean well. They also want to see you achieve the rewards of your passion.
There is a tension between
doing things for fun and
doing things for money.
We all hope to do fun things
and make lots of money.I do.
Don't give up on your passions
even if you don't find monetary success.
Also don't give up on chasing money
to chase your passions.
This is particularly true for myself.
Because I traded my
"happy silly creative shit"
for the
"work for money creative shit",
which I can't say I truly enjoy as much.
Even though i'm doing so-called fun things I don't think i'm "happy" happy
about everything I do.
I'm still stressed out than ever because I still don't
make much money
from my work "passion".
I short, it wasn't worth it
to give up my fun
for the money
because I didn;t get the money
but I lost all the fun
My solution now is to separate
their time "work creative shit"
from
my time " silly creative shit"
If you�re in the creative industry, don�t sacrifice your
"silly creative shit"
for your "work creative shit".
Keep on writing stupid stories,
movie reviews, doodling, painting, whatever. Feed it and it will feed you one day.
Maybe.
And if you want more money,
get a job that pays you well
which also gives you time
to do your silly creative shit.
This is my epiphany.
Maybe you already had yours.
The market for this shit
will appear one day.
And the same goes for
your shit too.
