As we watch the hope balloon begin to lose helium and the realization that the coronavirus pandemic will stay with us for a very long time, you might be tempted to cut a proverbial corner, doing what is necessary to stay alive. Desperation or even the thought of being desperate is the justification some might need to compromise. However, compromise is not flexibility. Compromise is a willingness to do what you do not. It is a non-starter if there ever was one.
You will have to look yourself in the mirror. Eventually, your choice to betray yourself, your art and your creative business will stare back at you. The price and value of integrity is simultaneously everything. So long as you have integrity, you are a success in my book. Integrity in all that you do: treating people fairly, being true to yourself and your art, being original, being straightforward even if the news isn’t good (and it most certainly will not be), and, most of all, being honest with yourself, your employees and your clients.
Giving up integrity is easy, because there is always a justification. Coronavirus is your perfect foil. Getting your integrity back though, incredibly difficult. Personal experience has taught me this exquisitely painful lesson. When I ran my food delivery/catering business after 9/11, I borrowed money I knew in my heart of hearts I couldn’t pay back. Hired employees I knew I really could not afford. Bought inventory from vendors on credit I did not deserve. In the end, I found myself bankrupt (literally) and very much alone. There is always grace in redemption and I will be forever grateful to the very long list of people that allowed me to return to myself. It took a really really long time for me to be proud of who I saw in the mirror. I can absolutely say my integrity was the one thing I am most ashamed of ever having lost.
The problem with operating without integrity is that the result (positive or negative) is never really yours. If you do what it takes to survive in a way that does not pass the smell test (i.e., take money you cannot spend well so that you can justify paying yourself, doing work you are not able to do, taking money when you know you are on the edge, etc.). While you might be able to live with it in the short run, the lie will get you in the end. The spirit of creation and individualism behind any artist and their creative business simply will not permit being derivative forever. And to go down the path of being dishonest can do nothing but destroy your own sense of self. Hard to produce great work when the confidence in having faith in who you are and what you are about is gone.
None of this easy. Some creative businesses will work their way through, others will not. That is the stark reality confronting us all. Whether you make it to the other side is a function of hard work, foresight and the ability to stay true to yourself. You have a choice to get there with intention, purpose, conviction and faith in yourself, your art and your creative business. Or you can beg, borrow and even steal to do what you have to do. I am here to tell you that you will be a shell of yourself if you have to do the latter. As painful as it will be, please walk away first. You will, in fact, live to fight another day.
Let the temptation to copy (i.e., steal) from someone else, do business that is not right for you or lower your standards (i.e., prices, product quality, clientele) for the sake of the business pass through you. It IS harder to stay true to yourself and your art and work to see what opportunities will present themselves during this epically brutal time. Keeping your integrity WILL be enormously challenging. No need to sugar coat it. However, if you can know, really know, that losing your integrity will make you myopic, blind to your own pain and that you will most certainly cause others, the choice might not be that difficult.
