On the Importance of Creating Work that Inspires Others

This is the third part of a three-part blog post, inspired by a remark made by my friend and colleague, while admiring the work of New York-based Artist, Tom Sachs .

The short series is an exploration of what it means and what it takes - in my opinion - to be “200% yourself”.

In the first post , I mentioned that, in order to be "200% yourself" I think you need to do 2 things:

1) You have to do really hard work.

&

2) You have to create things that inspire, empower and move other people to emulate and adopt the best parts of you, and to then make them their own, and become more themselves in the process.?

Here is a link to the second post on the necessity of “Hard Work ”, if you haven’t read it.

In this third post, I will focus on Part 2 and creating things / work that inspire and empower others.

So…

Beyond Tom Sachs (who has inspired me plenty), when I think of the people who’ve inspired me most - by being 200% themselves - the first two people that come to mind are Casey Neistat & Ryan Holiday .

I don’t know where I would be if I hadn’t discovered Casey’s YouTube channel or Ryan’s blog & books when I was in my early 20’s.

Casey created about 534 consecutive daily YouTube videos , in which he was constantly espousing the values of hard work, taking risks, being unafraid of what other people think, and finding your own voice. My brother introduced me to his videos during what was a very dark and confusing time in my life.

They may have literally saved my life.

In 2015, when I was finishing university, I was extremely depressed, I was abusing alcohol, and I experienced suicidal thoughts and feelings on a number of occasions. Casey’s message of hope and persistence, and the example he set through his hard work and fearlessness gave me the permission I felt I needed to be myself and pursue my own dreams as an adult, rather than caving to what, at the time, felt like an enormous amount of pressure - from society, friends, and family - to do anything but that.

A short time after finding Casey’s videos, I also discovered Ryan Holiday’s writing exploring the ancient tenets of stoicism and how to leverage and apply them in modern life. First I read The Obstacle is the Way , then Ego is the Enemy , and finally Stillness is the Key .

While Casey’s message of extreme determination, grit, and pursuit of your goals at all costs was helpful and absolutely necessary for me at that stage in my life and career, Ryan’s writing got me started on the process of filling in the other gaps and rounding out my mental toolkit. It helped me focus my energy on problems that were actually within my control, to see where my grit and determination - when applied to misled goals - might actually be working against me, and to begin to ask myself questions like “How do I find purpose and stillness in order to live well?” rather than simply trying to accomplish more and more secular goals - only to temporarily appease my own insatiable ego.

Casey & Ryan’s work gave me the jump-start I needed to really begin my process of self-discovery through creativity, entrepreneurship, and a disciplined approach to personal development. In the beginning, I took everything they said as gold, but over time I’ve been able to branch out and draw inspiration from other writers, filmmakers, entrepreneurs, artists etc. to build my own business , pursue my own creative endeavours and, ultimately, to develop my own unique perspective and ideas on creativity, business, and life itself.

The thing is, without a focused and strategic approach to organizing, refining, and sharing those ideas, they’re just kind of scattered around, loosely, in my head and aren’t nearly as valuable to me or to others, as they could be. That’s a big reason why I’m making an effort to write more. I want to make sure all the books I’ve read, mistakes I’ve made, and things I’ve learned are not only made useful to me and my creative work, but also to anyone else who might be interested in learning from my journey the same way I did from Casey & Ryan’s - among many others.

I am forever indebted to those who’ve come before me, who worked their asses off, and have consequently inspired me and changed my life through their work; and the repayment terms on that debt are as follows:

1) I need to honour their hard work by taking their advice, inspiration, and examples, and running with them / applying them to my life and work.

2) I need to take all of that beautiful, chaotic, creative energy that I’ve borrowed from them (and that they borrowed from those before them) and I must transmute it through the filter of my own life, my unique experiences, and my work, in order to give it back to the universe in a form that others may draw from it, learn from it, and, once again, borrow some of that energy as they begin the next iteration of this cycle.

I realize I’ve been talking about creativity in relation to art and entrepreneurship exclusively, but I don’t actually believe (at all) that one has to create art or a business in order to reach this ideal of being “200% yourself”.?

You could also bake cookies for your friends or colleagues or throw a party or volunteer at a community kitchen or coach a youth sports team and inspire others to do more of the same. And actually, the older I get, the more I find myself having an immense amount of respect for the type of person who does these sorts of things, and isn’t caught up in the idea of having to be a “successful founder”, “influencer”, or “artist” as if those are the only things worth being (and only if everybody else knows you are one or all of these things and is at least a little bit jealous of you as well).

After a fair bit of living, screwing up, self-examination, and honest reflection, I think I need and am searching for a healthy mix of the energy I get from creative entrepreneurship, while actively making more time and space for things like cooking for friends, coaching, and hosting etc.

Personally, right now, I still feel quite distant from this [imaginary] target of being “200% myself”, but having written these few short posts feels like a step in the right direction.

I’ve got a few new ideas for the next steps too, and I’m excited at the possibilities in front of me as I pay back my eternal energy debts to the universe.

Hopefully these posts have given at least a few of you some new ideas of your own! If they have, feel free to reach out and share them with me.

That would be nice.