Day jobs

Creativity requires connection.

Before I launch into today’s Creative Urge, I have a small favour to ask…

I’ve put together a proposal to speak at the inaugural SXSW Sydney in October this year and public voting has just opened.

(Side note, if you’re not familiar with the phenomenon of SXSW, sessions are voted in by the public, which helps shape the week long festival of awesomeness.)

Click here to vote for my session, hit the orange “vote” button and voila – it takes less than 2 mins and you’ll be helping me make my dreams come true!

And now, onto this week’s musing…

The conversations I’ve been having lately about creativity and business have been VERY enlightening.

From confabs about process and production, to public rants about choosing YOURSELF instead of tactics or frameworks, the truth is coming out.

Today, I want to talk about something that no one talks about, despite soooo many of us doing it: getting a ‘day job’ to support your dreams.

Taking on part-time work doesn’t mean you’ve failed in business

I’ve come face-to-face with this story as I recently joined Aussie startup Fingerprint for Success as Senior Copywriter in their product team.

Business has been ROUGH for me for the last 6 months. I found that even though I had copious amounts of time to create what I wanted, I wasn’t even doing that either.

Confronted with an endless blackhole of time and a vast array of potential creative projects, I found myself doing – you guessed it – nothing. And it wasn’t for lack of trying.

I was running out of savings fast and struggling to make ends meet, which isn’t exactly living 'The Dream’ that all those Instagram coaches sold me. So I made a choice.

Instead of isolating myself further, I looked out into the world for how I could still develop my skills, retain my independence and hitch my wagon, so to speak, to someone else’s momentum.

Aka, I started looking for a job – but hidden underneath that choice was a whole stinkin’ pile of grief. And this voice:

“As a business owner, you shouldn’t have to get a job – your business is your job. If you can’t make THAT work full-time, you’ve failed.”

I was in SHOCK.

THIS is what my brain decided to spit out in reaction to a decision that I felt really aligned about?! Was I fooling myself into thinking that it was an act of self-preservation, or was it truly an act of self-sabotage?

But then something incredible happened

I confessed what I’d decided to a few entrepreneurial pals in my circle, and they didn’t pity me or confirm my fears – they were genuinely excited, proud and inspired by my choice.

In fact, soooo many of them also admitted to getting part-time gigs to support their biz in the past AND, to my surprise, many had recently picked up extra work, just like me!

So, why aren’t we talking about it?

Because we live in a zero-sum world

Black or white, yes or no, night or day – in a zero-sum world, it’s one or the other… which is a BIG problem for creativity.

When we’re creating, we live in the ‘AND’, not the ‘either/or’. It’s a space of uncertainty and unpredictability which both the market and our brains don’t like.

The market yearns to categorise and commodify, while our brains crave clarity, putting everything into boxes with neat little bows.

So when we get a part-time job AND still do our business AND creative pursuits on top of that, we break capitalism’s normal rules and our brains at the same time.

We live in an expensive world – don’t be ashamed to support yourself

It’s really hard to create anything of value from a place of scarcity, particularly where finances are concerned.

Know that if you’re taking a job on now, it won’t be forever – and at any time if it gets too much, you can scale it back or quit.

What’s most important here is to gear everything towards supporting your dreams, including the type and frequency of job you choose to pick up.

As a Creative, you need to be connected to the world, not isolated on your own –and who knows, maybe you’ll do your most groundbreaking work as a result of what you experience next.

Creatively yours,

Dr Maz xo

PS: If you’ve ever been curious about your motivations for work, I strongly suggest you do the Fingerprint for Success quiz. I’ve already learned SO much about myself in a short amount of time because of it. Not sponsored either, I just love it lol.