Note: I consume a lot of articles and podcasts for artists and entrepreneurs, and I mostly share them on my private, personal Facebook page. However I realize that there are those of you out there who could find these helpful too, and so I'm placing them on my blog as well so they can be more widely available. Hope you enjoy the first installment of Monday Motivation!
“The most defeatist thing I hear is, “I’m going to give it a couple of years.” You can’t set a clock for yourself. If you do, you are not [an artist]. You should want it so badly that you don’t have a choice. You have to commit for the long haul. There’s no shame in being a starving artist.”
I recently re-read this excerpt from Getting There: A Book of Mentors written by Matthew Weiner, creator of the critically acclaimed TV series "Mad Men." It struck a deep chord in me, given the choice I've made to give up commercial work to focus on being an artist. Whether it's working at a job you hate to pay the bills, or having to tighten your belt indefinitely while bootstrapping your creative business, not to mention constant uncertainty and the self-doubt it tends to breed, deciding to get on the road to becoming a full-time artist entails major sacrifices. I know that it can sometimes feel overwhelming, which is why Weiner's story is so compelling because, as he describes it, he found himself in a hole that to anyone can seem impossible to climb out of:
“Upon graduation, I set up meetings everywhere in the hopes of getting a job. In three months I got nothing....
So for the next three years I stayed home and wrote spec scripts. My friends had day jobs, but I didn’t. My wife, Linda, worked hard as an architect and supported us. I attempted to shop my material around, but nothing sold. I got very bitter, seeing people I didn’t think deserved it succeed. It was a dark time. Show business looked so impenetrable that I eventually stopped writing. I began watching TV all day and lying about it.... I felt like the most useless, worthless person in the world.”
So for those of you who feel like it's never going to work, or are struggling to keep afloat long enough to get a breakthrough, I hope you take heart in Weiner's example. As Weiner concludes: "I do believe that if you are truly talented, get your material out there, put up with the rejection, and don’t set a time limit for yourself, someone will notice you."
How do you find the strength to persist? If you ask me, if you genuinely feel that you are born to do this, you don't actually have a choice. You persist until you get noticed. If you don't, you continue anyway. Because it was never about the money or the recognition, was it?
Have a great week everyone!