On Being a Creative
While catching up the other day with a friend over a late brunch, we proceeded to do what millennials do best — peruse Instagram together. This divergence into the vast social media void was, however, more purposeful than most others.
It began from a conversation about well-known content creators (Creatives, as we will lovingly call them) and about their respective journeys. As it turns out, we knew these Creatives in some way or form, having spoken to them in passing, having been in the same room as them, or having known them or about them from their early days before their follower count included an alphabet.
As it turned out, we found various interesting connections with ourselves and these Creatives, mostly that of friends of friends, or “I went to school with them!” or someone we know marrying a Creative or someone related to a Creative. It really is a small world.
After some bouncing from profile to profile, we landed on someone she knew through a distant family connection of some sort (it’s probably not as complicated as I remember, but it’s also not of grave importance either).
“So, SHE! She is stunning,” she gasped. “Interesting story, too. She’s a doctor and a model!” She was genuinely proud and stunned at her accomplishment. “I mean, come on! I have no idea how people manage to do both, but good for her!” But it was my eyes that widened when I learned that while an MD, this Creative actually chose to pursue modelling fulltime!
Crazy concept? Yes, maybe to some. But is it really that crazy?
We have been so deeply conditioned to accept a professional career from which we can derive some traditional level of success that anything we do otherwise is seen as either less than or a means of wasting our potential.
Does that mean that we cannot be successful if we choose a non-conventional career? What really constitutes for conventional these days anyway?
I can speak for myself, and I think many others may relate, that from a young age we are shown a dream and told that this is ours to chase, when it is not really the case. It’s often misaligned with our true passions and ambitions and we are conditioned into convincing ourselves that this is truly what we want for ourselves in order to achieve a good life. As though the pursuit of a more civil, realistic, pragmatic dream acts as a golden ticket into what is seen or taught to us to be a normal, healthy, and stable adult life.
I’ve been struggling with a question lately, something that I have been asking myself, and is probably what led me down this rabbit hole of writing this to begin with. I ask myself, and now others:
“What are you doing for your soul?”
I mean, it’s great that you’ve done X, Y, and Z. Sure, we have degrees, titles, designations, achievements and awards to our names. We’ve pursued these things for some modicum of satisfaction in ourselves and the world around us in which we live. We’ve done it for our financial wellbeing, careers, families and friends. But what have we truly done for ourselves that brings joy to our inner most essence?
That question usually begins to stir a response, but is shortly followed by silence and deep thought. It’s not easy coming up with a strong answer, and the reason is mostly because the majority of us don’t have one.
Most of us have embarked on career paths on a strange and outdated promise: go to school, get a degree, get a good job, get married, have kids, and then make sure that they follow the same path. But what happens when the path doesn’t really lead to the same things as they perhaps once did? What happens when the path has been beaten and has been poorly maintained?
What happens when we are expected to follow this path and live out the same formula that has worked for our elders who lived in yesterday’s world, but no longer readily apply to the one we currently live in? A world riddled with despotic regimes, a new world order defined by terror, war, famine, natural disasters, global warming, the threat of automation?
What happens when we really embrace the fact that our world leaders continue to leave poor examples of leadership and decision qualities, when we inherit a deteriorating world economy, fractured global relations, the constant fear of war and geopolitical conflict, and atrocious policies that are designed to hurt large portions of the population in the name of state interest and national security? What happens to our dreams then?
A more important question: what happened to our curiosity? What happened to our desire to be free from the invisible chains binding us to our social responsibilities of “mostly work and nothing else?” What happened to the teenager in us that saw the world for what it is and vowed to never become another cog in the machine? Here we are now, nearing our thirties and forties, stuck in the age-old complex of “I need a car to go to work, I need to go to work to pay for the car.”
Yes, I know some of you have raised half an eye-brow in consideration of those YouTube ads on dropshipping masterclasses promising unlimited passive income so you can work from your phone while vacationing anywhere in the world. Shut up, I know you know what I’m talking about. Anything to make you feel less like a cog and more like your own machine, right?
In the midst of being stuck in a corporate or professional career path, there are Creatives among us who have carved out a unique space for themselves to enjoy those very things that bring them joy and also sustain themselves and their lifestyles. So why, then, should this be looked down upon in any way or seen to be less than?
The fact is, anyone who strives in producing an income while having the freedom to do what they choose, whenever they choose it, is living a step above the rest of us. No one is saying that you hate your job or that you should — the question is if you’ve always wanted to do this and just this, and if not this, what else?
Creatives have found a fun and, well, creative way to remain productive and drive their own personal growth while also remaining youthful and engaged with the parts of themselves that allow them to stand apart. There is no risk or fear involved in being a Creative, you say? Tell that to someone who has chosen to deviate from the traditional path and quit their jobs to embark on something that stimulates them but has no set precedent of actually making money. It’s all risk and it’s riddled with fear. But as many have shown, it’s not an impossible feat.
Not too long ago, a high schooler said to me that they aspire to be an entrepreneur when they grow up. I didn’t quite laugh at the idea, but I didn’t quite warm up to i either. The advice I imparted on them through the typical lens of an educator was that “you can’t really go to school for that, learn a discipline first that you can apply to being an entrepreneur.”
I take that back. Every Creative is an entrepreneur in their own right, and very few of them refined their skills through formal or institutionalized education. You want to be a YouTuber when you grow up? By all means, do it. Stick to it, protect that dream and go for it.
Because to be a Creative is to find a way to be fearless in protecting the inner child in us, to allow our curiosities to persist and not be drowned out in all the noise of the world.
If we are to learn anything from today’s Creatives, it is that we all have the desire to be truly free of the bindings placed on us by society. And that if we truly wish to be free, we have to take it upon ourselves to achieve it in the way that makes most sense to us. Do we accept leaving one cave after being enlightened only to accept being confined to another? Or do we rid of caves altogether and find ourselves a spot along the beach?
It can undoubtedly be a lonely corner to be in, especially when there are potentially so many others who could follow suit but do not choose to out of fear of the unknown. In a perfect world, our friends, family, and loved ones would be alongside us in the “same” pursuit, with the only real similarity being that their pursuit is as entirely as individual and unique as our own. However, to even begin dispelling and overcoming this fear of the unknown in others, we must strive to do so in ourselves so that we can collectively establish a Creative industry (if we can even be so bold to call it that).
Who would have known that tech reviews, podcasts, writing, dancing, illustration, comedy, filmmaking, photography, storytelling, backpacking, arts and craft (and the list goes on!) could actually be sustainable as full-time careers? The Creatives who made it possible for themselves weren’t all sure either.
In a time in the world where reality TV star billionaires can be president, we really should consider the fact that anything is possible.
So, I now extend the question to you: what are you doing for your soul?
Follow Naveed Khan on Instagram and Twitter — his work can also be found at www.naveedk.com. You can also support by buying him a coffee!
