This is for all who dared to dream but were woke by a bad fart in the night...
Working for yourself is a pain in the ass. Period. There is no other way to put it. It's hard work. You're surrounded by insecurity. And even those who say or actually do support you do so with an often raised eyebrow... "Sorry kid, go get a job, you gave it your best shot and it's time to fall in line like the rest of us." God damn is that irritating. And few people understand that gut-wrenching curl in your stomach when you get even the faintest of hints of such an attitude. Nevertheless, that's why I'm here. Part of this is my own therapy, part of it is for you. Regardless, somewhere along the lines, our society veered away from creativity and dove headfirst into automation.
Sports players. Artists. School kids.
Everyone in every field is attempting to maximize efficiency by reducing mistakes. This sounds lofty. No one likes mistakes. Yet, that's a terrible idea. We need those mistakes. Perhaps not with the manufacturing of automobiles, that is certainly a great place to implement strict calculation-based execution, but when it comes to life and the execution of true skill, a brain untouched by failure is one weak and doomed to collapse. It'll be prone to triggers. The slightest event will offset comfort and result in despondency. Perhaps your fix for this is a drink. Perhaps it's finding the easiest naked body. Distractions are plentiful in our world. However, they do not help you resolve the issue. Confronting that discomfort is the direct line towards freedom. Some will tell you its crystals. Others may say it was fate that brought this pile of shit onto you and that "you needed it". Perhaps there is some truth to this, nevertheless, none of us know that for certain. These ideas may provide for comfort in our wounded hearts, but the same must be true when faced with cold-blooded murder, and frankly speaking, none of these types of pseudo-esoteric understandings are developed enough or held by scientific scrutiny, and if everything is fate then there really is no need to point it out.
Truth is, a swift kick in the ass should serve as a reminder: the world can be a mother-fluck!n cruel place, though not arbitrarily evil. If you do not put food in your stomach, you will die, and if you do not get your ass up, you will not get food. This has been the greatest lesson as of late, and it is quite applicable to the world of creativity. A highly creative mind is prone to developing ideas. This process is super motivating, yet sitting in front of the computer to ham out that script can be a dreadful thing for some, because while you developed that excellent source of inner awareness and strength for formulating ideas, execution skipped right on by your teenage years... and the world is all about execution.
Lesson From A Joke
There are two Unscripted TV Producers I've been paying attention to lately. One of their names is Joke (yup). I'm not sure who played the trick on her when providing that name but hey, she does damn fine work, so who the hell are we to judge. Her and her husband provided a bit of knowledge when talking about the film-making process. Often, people are concerned about the theft of ideas. "My story was stolen." "My book was turned into a movie and I never got a check." But, the truth is, ideas are everywhere and in everyone's mind. Right now, some farmer sits on a toilet and thinks of a space-opera he conceived of while romping around the haystacks with an ex-girlfriend, and it wasn't George Lucas. The difference is, good old George executed his dream. He persisted until that fine piece of storytelling found its way onto the silver-screen. And that's what you need to do. Focus on execution. If you're in your teens or twenties, for cryin' out fuck!n loud: FOCUS ON EXECUTION. If half of us had begun to unleash that inner creativity we had rolling around inside of our brains back in the early 2000s we'd be making money pm YouTube and not in an office. The problem is, for many at least, discouragement is an easy path. It's simple to sit back and weep when the world tells you you're not good enough. Most of us are trained to retreat to a corner and whimper, secretly hoping someone will shine the light of appreciation down on our sorrows and say "Hey champ, you're actually really freakin' awesome. Here's a million bucks to do what you've always wanted. Now you can get up and accomplish with confidence." That shit just don't happen, folks, and truth be told, it shouldn't... well, fuck yeah it should, but very likely it won't.
What To Do Next
Now is the time. Get a dose of Offurazz and put pen to paper. Author? Start writing. Mechanic? Start building. Police officer? Start communicating. Filmmaker? Pull out your camera and hit the red button, because I can tell you right now, fate won't do it for you.
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