Whenever us creative types get together, or–come to think of it–even when we’re alone, it’s usually all about “me”, “my”, or “we” or “I”. What is MY next gig, what am I doing to improve MY portfolio, MY solo exhibition, MY client list, MY ad campaign, MY blog, MY bank account, gear locker, self-promo mailer, vision… You get the point. Don’t deny it.
As a result, we can be overly paranoid, competitive, frustrated, cocky, going for broke, indulgent, critical, self-absorbed, self-loathing, self aggrandizing and overly analytical. We spend a lot of time living in our own heads.
But the truth is, we’re way better creatives when we’re better people. Better to ourselves, better to others, better to the world.
I just bumped into a close friend on the way back from my morning coffee. He shook my tree a little bit and told me a quick story in realizing this about himself. The story ended with his re-framing his self-focus into a simple plan to motivate a change. At the wrap up of each day he’s asking himself “what are 3 things I did to make somebody else’s life better today?”
I like that. Perhaps you should too.
Fantastic story! Totally hilarious! You couldn’t script it better if you tried. While I sympathise with your predicamet being force repatirated out of Laos after two years of working there, how it was orchestrated is just amazing. Very entertaining. I would be interested to know just what it was you were doing there though as humanitarian work” doesn’t immediately translate to “non-problematic” to local interests. Care to share some detail?
Hi Su Mon, you were our lecturer for Strategic Marketing our final module before graduating and returning to our homeland in Singapore. After my group of 4 persistently waited outside your office for 2-min of your time, we managed to come up with a turnaround business plan for our final project. Though we diagnosed the case study wrongly, you were very encouraging and still gave us a pass for our hard work. Whew! Your lectures were one of the most terrifying yet enjoyable ones. May you be blessed with good health, and here’s wishing you many meaningful days ahead with your family =)Karen Teng, B Bus (Marketing), graduated 1996
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