Why Not You?

As you align yourself, your art and your creative business with a consistent, iconic statement; when you take a stand, opportunities will come your way.  Whether you are in disbelief that anyone would pay you that much, that a client of so and so size and stature would want to work with you, or your dream project falls from the sky, you will have to confront the idea of your own worth.

Bravado, overconfidence, and, ahem, hubris will say it was always meant to be.  Good luck — hitting the ground hurts — alot.  On the other hand, humility, grace and confidence in gifts given bring you to yourself.  What you were always meant to do was to live your own truth and to bring that truth to bear in your art and your creative business, the rest is just noise and a happy side effect(s).  If someone can categorically tell me how they came to an idea, design, concept, etc., I might come around to the notion that no greater force was at work.  But since no one has been able to do it yet, I am going to hold on to the notion that there are forces larger than us that allow us to create what we do.  Then why not you?

Presuming you have talent, are working diligently on honing that talent, what are you doing to act as if?  Opportunities ALWAYS come.  Whether you are ready for them is another story.  Put yourself there.  Do not imagine what it would be like to be or be doing, instead just do it.  Live the role.  Feel where you are not ready, scared to death, then know what you have to offer.  Hopefully, you will find, as with almost anything in this world, what comes the way of your art and creative business has simultaneously everything to do with you and nothing at all.

Everything because people do business with people.  You might be just that good, but if you are a jerk, your clients will leap at the nice artist who is (almost) as good as you given the chance.  Nothing to do with you because you are not a person in your creative business, you are an asset.  Foolsplay to see yourself any differently.  As an asset, the goal is to use you the best way possible, leveraging your best qualities and downplaying those that are not.  CEOs are not bottle washers for a reason.  Not that there is no honor in bottle washing or that CEOs are somehow better than bottle washers (they are not), only using CEOs to wash bottles detracts from initiating, implementing and maintaining strategy and sales that everyone (i.e., employees, investors, vendors, colleagues, etc.) expect from her.  And, no, there is no inconsistency between seeing yourself as an asset and having faith in your talent and the opportunities coming to you.  We acquire assets for our creative business to get the most value we can from them (lots more than we paid).  Allowing yourself to play a role not meant for you by definition diminishes your value.  If you would not use a laptop as a booster seat, why would you spend your time bottle washing if that is not your primary talent?

When I hear, “That’s just crazy” or “it’s crazy” I try very hard to smile and remind myself that the best things in life make no sense.  I also try to take Tina Fey’s first rule of improv to heart (always say “yes”).  From there I suspend disbelief and get down to the work of analyzing whether “crazy” fits or not.  I try to do it in the context that I or my clients are assets and whether the “crazy” honors the asset and its potential.  If it does or sort of does, I can set out what will make “crazy” not only not “crazy” but probable.  In the end, it always comes back to alignment – you, your art and your creative business – do they speak the same language and to whom are they talking?  I might be surprised at the size and scale of who might be listening when alignment happens, but am never skeptical.  Why not you should always be followed with are you ready even if getting ready mostly means letting go of “crazy”.