Welcome to No Brand Like Home, a professional + personal guide for creatives. My goal is simple: break away from the status quo and design my own life. Business and culture are changing everyday. Are you?
I think everyone was born with potential to do great things.
To become a genius.
But unfortunately only a few select people retain their genius and fulfill their potential. They never loose sight of their inherent and otherworldly wisdom. In spite of everything, they remain legit.
More often, people forget their brilliance. They become discouraged and are talked out of their genius. They second guess their natural intuition and eventually give up.
Have you given up?
You used to be a genius.
What happened?
Life happend. Slowly. The opinions, egos and conflicting desires of others eventually cause you to, one compromise at a time, lose track of your vision. You cave to the pressures and expectations of the world. You become *gasp* just like everyone else.
This is an easy way to live because you simply follow the current. You float happily along and hold no responsible for where you wash up.
Honestly, this is understandable. Living with genius in a world without it is difficult because it requires you to take a stand. It requires that you live with responsibility for your actions and influence. It requires you to stand out and become a target for haters who are subconsciously uncomfortable with your independence.
Whatevs. Accept the challenge. Let the haters hate.
All babies are geniuses. They don’t give a fuck about your negative theories or accumulated self-doubt.
Are you really going to forget your genius and be outdone by a baby?
Well are you?
If you run your own business (or even have a stable career) chances are you’ve had a few defining moments of success that put you in your current position. Maybe you had one great business idea that got you promoted. Maybe you knocked a project out of the park and it ended up winning you a ton of new business.
Those were undoubtedly awesome moments. But it’s after those success stories that the real challenge begins. It’s easy to do well at first, when there are little or no expectations. But what are you doing now to maintain your edge and continue your momentum?
I feel like so many people get a small taste of success (or happiness or money or love) and settle into that niche as if they’ve seen it all. They settle. I never want success to make me less hungry or less hopeful. There is always more to learn and more dimension to add to your life, relationships, business and career.
Everyday you have a choice to settle for what you have or challenge yourself to grow and expand your limits.
Suckers settle. Winners grow.
Are you truly satisfied with your role in your company?
Is your business living up to your original vision?
Do you surround yourself with people who challenge you to be better?
Are you legit? If not, why?
“Stupid clients.
How dare they criticize my work.
They wouldn’t know good creative if it _______ them in the ________.
I’M the one who paid $_ _ _ , _ _ _ to attend portfolio school in Barcelona. They should listen to ME!
People suck.
FML.”
Dear creatives: I understand.
You’re awesome. You don’t want to be told what to do. You want people to understand and appreciate your work and the value you provide. You want recognition. You (secretly) want praise. You want everyone to realize that you’re a genius. You may not admit it, but you really want a hug.
The business world is not always an easy fit for creatives.
We probably had dreams of being great novelists or playwrights. We wanted to paint or act, or have photo exhibitions in art galleries where we planned to sip (pound) red wine alongside badass bohemians with interesting facial hair. But now we now face an office job where, while we’re still doing interesting and creative work, we face the constraints and politics of a business environment. Sure, we get to wear jeans, take long lunches and drink company beer at five (four) o’clock. But the part of us that wanted total personal and artistic freedom, that rebellious voice that wants to shape the world in some meaningful way, never really goes away.
So we get an attitude.
That chip on our shoulder becomes a whole platter of nachos.
I admit it. I have a big head sometimes. I can be incredibly selfish.
I set myself apart from my environment, my co-workers and clients. Even my friends. I act as if my “vision” gives me entitlement. Everyone else is lame, I think, and get lost in my own fenced-off world where I am king. When my creatives decrees are challenged, I take offense, and often retreat.
What can I say? Creatives are a sensitive bunch.
We value beauty and see the world in idealistic terms. We want our lives, interactions, relationships and careers to be pure. Honest. Free from the abrasive influence of douchebags.
We want things our way.
But then I remember. It’s not about me. And it’s not about you.
It’s all too easy to sink into the false comfort of being a misunderstood creative in an ignorant world.
But you’re selling yourself short.
Embrace the challenge of using your talents to impact the world on a larger scale. This can’t happen when you’re stuck in a shell. Creatives need to think outside the business positions we have been assigned and face head-on the global issues we all share.
Think bigger.
Don’t think of yourself as living only within the context of your small creative niche. It’s not you against them. It’s us, period. We live in one world and the importance of everyone around you cannot be understated. The same problems your CEO faces effect you too. All the crap giving your account manager headaches is happening in the same world where great art is created.
The noncreative world is vicious and full of assholes. But don’t forget, the asshole is a natural part of the human body. And while creatives are lucky to have a better metaphorical position (the mind, heart, imagination, etc.) the body is most healthy when all its parts work in unison.
You’re awesome, I know.
But don’t hoard your awesomeness. Be awesome to everyone. Be awesome even when it’s difficult. When necessary, fake it.
Trust me. The results will be awesome.
We all have our moments of success. We score the big goal. Win the business. Get the raise. Everything comes together at once and we’re left standing in the endzone, victorious.
Game over. You win!
When you work hard at reaching a goal, and finally do, there’s nothing better. Every decision in your life seems validated. But it’s how you react to your moment of glory that reveals a lot about your confidence level and character.
Are you the flashy player, who celebrates with a touchdown dance and cocky gestures toward the crowd?
I appreciate this excitement, and this level of enthusiasm can be contagious. But to me, when I see football players a little too excited to score a touchdown, it tells me they didn’t expect it to happen, that they are surprised by their success, that they have never been there before.
Or are you the guy who makes the 3-point shot (I know I’m mixing sports metaphors. Sorry.) then quickly gets back downcourt to help on defense?
I’ve always been more impressed by this approach. It shows a sense of big picture awareness that understands that one play isn’t everything. You’ve got to finish the game. This guy has the confidence that he’s made big plays in the past and will continue to make big plays in the future, and is therefore not phased by one moment of passing glory.
Keep your head up.
Be proud.
Then move on to the next play.
Act like you’ve been there before.
It’s that time of year, kids.
SCHOOL’S OUT!
High school and college grads everywhere are taking deep breathes of freedom as they walk away from a major life milestone. It’s time for a summer of friends, parties, goodbyes and hellos.
Enjoy the victory lap, kids. You deserve it.
Just be ready.
Be ready for those deep breathes of freedom to turn into quick gasps of panic.
OMG! Now what??
The decisions you make now will have a major on the next few years of your life. Which means this is not the time to play by the rules. Now is time to make the decision whether you’re going to follow your dreams and become the person you want to be, or go with the flow and end up like everyone else.
Stakes is high. And your future happiness is on the line.
I have a hard time doing anything that I’m not in love with.
Before I knew what I was in love with, this was a problem.
My first college major was Political Science. I hated it, skipped most of my classes, and after a grand total of one semester, dropped out. I had to. If I’d kept going down the path I set for myself, I would have ended up hating myself and my eventual career.
My first phase of college came to its climax one day when I was suddenly presented with an essay test for which I was totally unprepared. I had been skipping class like woah, and had no idea there was a major test that day. The test was on Shakespeare. I didn’t know a single answer.
Instead of trying to fake my way through it, I came clean. I used the opportunity to address the larger life questions in front of me. I made a choice right then and there to only be true to my dreams. I answered the essay with two sentences. “Shakespeare never went to college. Sorry for wasting your time.”
I walked out of class and that was it.
I was a drop out.
I didn’t have a plan. I bummed around. I did a lot of writing and painting. I kept a journal. I let my hair grow out (a luxury I can no longer afford). I moved to New York. I never thought about college or considered going back. I didn’t know what I was going to do but I knew what I wasn’t going to do. I wasn’t going to do anything that I didn’t believe in 100%.
I didn’t realize it at the time, but I was finding my career spirit animal.
This is the long (and sometimes painful) process of pulling yourself out of the game, evaluating your values, ideals and dreams, and analyzing their relationship to the expectations set up by yourself and those around you. No, it doesn’t involve smoking peyote and voyaging into the forest on a spiritual job search. But it does involve a healthy balance of passive reflection and smart decision-making.
In this journey you don’t wait for a mystical vision to come to you. You dedicate yourself to making your own vision come true.
During the process of finding my career spirit animal, I took no prisoners. If something wasn’t working, I changed it. If something didn’t give me legit satisfaction, I ditched it. It may take years to design a life you’re happy with. But I’d rather have a few years of purposeful struggle than a lifetime of compromise.
What’s your career spirit animal?
Are you living it?
I think it’s important to not deny the primal voice inside your head (let’s call it intuition). In fact I think this is the voice we should listen to first. Sure, you can be successful while denying your career spirit animal. But you can’t be happy.
Are your innermost animalistic instincts and urges satisfied with the path you’re on? Or are you covering up the need for something else?
The best part of finding your career spirit animal? The pressure’s off. You just do whatever comes naturally to you and build your life and career off your intrinsic strengths. That’s way easier than trying to fill someone else’s job description.
So enjoy the summer.
Drink too much.
Smoke a cigar.
Skinny dip.
Do what feels right and keep doing what feels right. And when you find something that really feels right, grab ahold of it and work like hell to build upon it and make it work within the community at large. When that happens, you’ll never work another day in your life.
It’s wild out there, kids.
You have no choice but to let your animal out.
