I believe in this, to the action of staying creative:
The real presumption is that you are creative in the first place. Sometimes people who run creative enterprises are, in fact, great at running organizations, but less so to the challenges of creative activations. In fact, more often than not, being profoundly, resiliently creative is an extremely difficult balance to financial management and cultural development; it’s like they are two different things.
But the real alignment presumes passion. If you are really all about running an organization that serves creative action, then you’ve gotta love it. The holistic learning, the blood and spirit that drives impassioned, committed creative is not something you shut down at 5 pm, or somehow “turn on” as you come in at 5.am. You’ve got to be dreaming it, living it, walking around it and considering it non- stop. But, there’s surely method to the magic.
For me, it’s engagement in the thinking “around” the creative space. So if you are working there — doing this day in and day out, what is the real philosophy to the work? And how do you get out there, expose your explorations — and venture risk? You go out there. You get out there with your ideas. And they might not be perfect, but you get out there. And great creative is invariably about two things, risk and exposure.
It’s like rock climbing. You get up there, you are exposed, the view’s awesome. But there’s a reasonable chance you will fall.
What do you think about that? What do you think about how people see? When you are making a connection, an ad, a site, writing some copy, telling a story — how do people emotionally connect?
To keep your hand in the creative, you’ve got to risk. Explore. Expose. And be content. That is, to be a maker of content that thought fully relates to the craft, the magic, the work.
It is surely NOT a job.
Write about it.
Draw about it.
Talk about it.
Journal it.
Weblog it.
Get it out.
Because if you aren’t doing all that — then it is just that. A job.