Your Permission Slip

I have met many people with great ideas. Many of them have let financial stability take precedent. They have given up their art because it couldn't be their job. It is an all or nothing scenario with them. If they cannot afford to do it full time, they cannot afford to do it at all. "I don’t have time" seems to be synonymous with “I’m scared that I will fail.” Of course you’re afraid to fail, but really what would be so bad about failing?

Failing = learning

Let me give you permission. Permission to try and permission to fail. I have failed many times, I have been crippled by fear many times. I have never regretted trying and failing. Although I regret not acting because of fear often.

Why do we let the world tell us we are not good at something unless we get paid to do it? That if we are not the best we should move on, no matter how much we enjoy it someone will eventually tell us to grow up. Creativity isn’t childish. Losing your creativity should not be part of growing up. Humans are created to create. As a child there is freedom. The freedom to try, the freedom from feeling judged, the freedom to fail. Being creative is being human.

We all see others work and think, “I wish I could do that”. This becomes our standard, we know we cannot reach this on our first attempt, and we quit before we start.

“We know that our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know that it’s normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work.” - Ira Glass

Why should you try? Because you will learn something, I promise. You will learn either what you should do or what you shouldn’t do, either way it will be beneficial. That should be enough.

Our culture has made it normal to spend thousand of dollars and 4 years to learn. Yet taking our evenings or a couple months to pursue art, or entrepreneurship is a childish pipe dream. What?! I learned much more running a business than I did from doing a business degree. It cost much less, and connected me with more oppourtunities. Also, I did both at the same time. You can easily work a 9-5 or go to university and pursue business, art or any passion you may have. There are some amazing tools out there to learn and grow your passions that few people leverage. Are you interested in graphic design, fashion, business? Spend $10 and a few hours a week and do a Skillshare class after dinner. Do you want to write? Write, start a blog, post on medium. Step 1 is not enrolling in a journalism course.

I have this aversion to post secondary education for many reasons, but I do see it's value. What I do know is that in most cases it is a terrible first step. It’s an expensive way to determine if it is something that you actually want to pursue. Most programs do a terrible job of showing you what the industry is like. You can jump right in the industry and poke around, watch a youtube video, do some research.

Go Do.

Try, fail, learn.