Contradictory advice for creative people- Part 1

In creativity there is no right way or wrong way.

You will get contradictory advice throughout your career,

so here are both sides of the story.

Choose your own adventure. 

Part 1: Listen to advice / No one knows anything. 

Listen to Advice.

How to get good and stay good in a creative arena is so difficult to define

and evaluate that when you are starting out its hard to see the wood from

the D&AD pencils.

There is no right or wrong path on this career, and by this career

I’m including any creative discipline (design, art, broadcast, fashion, writing,

origami, rug weaving, jam making-whatever).

If you want to make money from your vocation

it’s important to listen to advice.

This path is a well-trodden one and the creative industries have been

going for as long as man could draw in sand.

If you think you are doing things first, you are wrong.

If you thing you are breaking new ground, you are wrong.

Technology may have changed, the world may have changed, but one

thing stays the same. It’s pure and it’s simple, it’s raw and it’s primal.

It’s called an idea.

No matter how they manifest themselves, the power and beauty of ideas

have lit the creative industry for thousands of years.

So, if you have ideas, get some advice about getting them brought to life.

Listen to the souls who have bled and cried

and tossed and turned with ideas.

Listen to people who have paid their mortgages with ideas.

Look at people who have changed the world with ideas.

They have been here before you.

They know where the bad kids hang out.

When you are mining your mind and soul for a living it’s good to know

that there are people who have been down the pit before you

and brought back gold.

Listen, ask questions and take heed.

Creativity is an adventure of a lifetime.

Bring a map.

No one knows anything.

There is one thing that is certain and it’s a thing that creative people have

found out through thousands of years of learning and that is the fact that

no one knows anything.

The whole creative industry is built on subjectivity, varying opinion,

emotion and irrationality.

Who is to say blue is better than green or long is better than short?

What can be right one week can be wrong in another.

The only thing that you have as a creative is your instinct and your gut.

No matter what any one says to you, this must be your lead.

Your mind and your artistic sensibility are what make you creative to

begin with. No one can teach you taste, you either have it or you don’t.

Don’t be tainted by tales of broken dreams and crushed spirit.

Make your own way and learn your own lessons.

Any advice is old advice and this is the new world.

The industry changes every day.

The only thing that stays the same is the power of an idea

and that is something only you can own.

Stay true and strong and let your creative heart lead you on a career

that will bring your ideas to life in ways only an imagineer can dream of.

A creative career is an adventure of a lifetime.

There will be twist and turns and highs and lows.

To say it will be a mystery tour is an understatement.

Leave the map at home.

Look out for Part 2: Education is important / Education means nothing.