#55 – 12 May 2023
Welcome to My Creative Calling!
So maybe you are wondering, what makes you special as a creator?
How can you stand out?
Today I am asking you to draw inspiration from your life experiences.
You probably haven’t given credit to that experience so far.
Maybe you think it’s average or boring.
But my challenge to you is, no, it is fascinating!
And this letter serves as a reminder to continue to seek out those experiences which make life worth living and feed creative inspiration.
So where did this idea come from?
This week I started listening to Kevin Kelly on the Rich Roll Podcast.
Kevin is a super interesting guy. He built an unconventional career as a futuristic thought leader, author, and traveller through Asia. Most notably, he was a co-founding member of Wired magazine.
He has so much wisdom, and I wanted to expand on six relevant points for us as creators:
- Detours that may not look like success (goofing around) often lead to success.
- The hidden gems in our background
- Thinking different
- It’s only as complicated as you make it
- You have all the resources you need to start
- Be the “only”
Let’s get into it.
Did you goof around in your 20’s?
In your 20s, try and spend some time doing something that looks nothing like success. That’s crazy, stupid, weird, orthogonal, unprofitable, and maybe dangerous.
That experience, as unsuccessful as it might look, becomes the touchstone for your success later on.
Kevin Kelly
There is so much pressure on kids to get out of school and start building a career.
The problem is we don’t know what we want at that age.
So we get pushed into making huge decisions that have major consequences for the rest of our lives.
You know the feeling, right?
It happened to me.
I didn’t know what I wanted to do when I finished school.
So it was suggested I should do something business related as I had interests there, and business is always relevant.
So I landed in accounting and finance.
Why not?
Accountants make good money, and it’s a stable job.
But I didn’t consider the greater costs of signing up for that.
Fifteen years later, I am still unravelling from that quick decision I made in my youth. I thought it was the “right” thing to do because it impressed my family and had a clear path to making money.
It made others happy, but not me.
I wish I dared to stand firm, take more time out before rushing into a big decision, and reflect on what could be more “right” for me.
Or even better, if I followed what seemed “fun” and saw where that took me.
But anyway, what happened, has happened.
Is it really a detour?
We are quick to blame ourselves for making the wrong move.
But how often do those “wrong moves” become a blessing?
Some of those moments that seemed like a derailment from career goals could hold some keys to our success now as creators.
For example, Kevin Kelly took time after school to travel the world. He naively went to Asia with no idea what to expect. Bear in mind Kevin is now just over 70 years old, so back then, when he went to Asia, it was a very different travelling experience to what it is now.
It wasn’t the comfortable tourism industry we now know and expect.
No, he went well off the beaten path.
He travelled around for a couple of years, going against conventional wisdom (study, get a job, build a career) by following his curiosity and seeking new experiences.
Many smart people would view this as a colossal waste of time and resources.
“You could be getting ahead in life.”
But in fact, this experience uniquely shaped Kevin and led to him owning a domain of one.
There is only one Kevin Kelly.
And he will not be repeated.
Don’t aim to be the best. Aim to be the only.
Kevin Kelly
He didn’t follow the traditional path, yet he went on beating his own drum and defined a new era of success.
He took many photos in Asia, which became a time capsule before the significant changes. He later released a series of books called Vanishing Asia.
He co-founded Wired and became an influential writer in the future of technology, with books such as Out of Control: The New Biology of Machines, Social Systems, and the Economic World and What Technology Wants.
And this all stems from the fact that he lived an unconventional life. He could draw on his vast experience to create a fascinating, one-of-a-kind body of work.
So how is this relevant to you?
I am sure you have lived an interesting life and done strange things you may have forgotten about.
But maybe these experiences could be the key to taking your work to new levels.
This is something I am considering more these days. Especially given the sea of sameness online and Chat GPT. Much of the content feels bland and repeated.
So how do we stand out? Our background helps
Bring that unique story and experience.
This is one of the things I love about the writer Steven Pressfield — he lived a full life!
Although he doesn’t recommend working dead-end jobs, you would be amazed at all the things he did before making it as a writer:
I wrote for 27 years before I got my first novel published.
During that time, I worked 21 different jobs in eleven states.
I taught school, I drove tractor-trailers, I worked in advertising and as a screenwriter in Hollywood, I worked on offshore oil rigs, I picked fruit as a migrant worker.
Steven Pressfield
And all these weird and wonderful experiences have given him a unique way of looking at life.
So what have you done in your life?
Is there something you haven’t really talked about that shaped you?
Is there some hidden purpose in there that you have not yet explored?
When I reflect on my own experience, at face value, I was like, “I didn’t goof around in my 20’s. I put my head down and got stuck into my accounting career.”
But wait!
Hold up.
That’s not so true!
I did do things.
And so have you!
Here’s some of the unique mix in my background, which I had not thought could hold an advantage:
- Raised on a farm in rural South Australia.
- Was a creative kid always into anything art related.
- Also, the sports kid in my family.
- Left home when I was 16 and went to boarding school in the city.
- Studied accounting and finance at University.
- Took a year off University to go and work on a wheat farm driving tractors.
- Started work in an accounting firm, but then over 15 years worked in small businesses, billion-dollar corporations, a start-up beer company, and sporting organisations.
- Played bass guitar in bands trying to make it as a musician on the weekends.
- Travelled worldwide, including a solo stint through Europe.
- Completed an MBA, including an exchange to a University in Germany.
- Married into a Lebanese family.
- Moved to London for two years, worked and travelled around Europe.
- Studied positive psychology and coaching.
- Started writing online about creative work and human potential.
- And recently, became a father.
What a strange and interesting mix that is!
It seems so random.
What the hell is going on there?
But that’s the point.
That’s life.
Humans are non-linear creatures.
We’re all over the place!
And each one of those encounters becomes another piece of our story.
I’ve been to so many incredible places and met many wonderful people.
I often beat up on the dull parts of my accounting career, but in reality, it’s been a fun ride overall.
I can see how all those experiences have shaped me into one of a kind.
And somewhere in there is my advantage, the unique value I can bring to the world.
I’ve had several people reach out and say they LOVE my content online. They say it’s different to other content they see and wonder how my mind works. I can’t pinpoint what it is and don’t feel particularly special. But after writing down that background mix, I realise it’s probably the product of all those seemingly unrelated things coming together in an original way.
What strange and interesting mix do you have in your story?
All that random experience helps us to:
Think differently
As a creator, I’m sure you feel the pressure to be different.
“Stand out,” the marketers say.
You want to really cultivate the ability to think differently in a world where everybody’s connected together all the time.
Kevin Kelly
So how do you think differently?
Well, you expose yourself to different things.
Don’t accept the status quo.
Read the books you want to read.
Travel to the places you want to explore.
Say yes to the projects which sound fun and exciting.
Take time out and do nothing, but in your own special way.
Don’t just do what others say is “good” for you.
This different approach will lead to different ideas and your own flavour that you bring to the world.
Travel has been one of the biggest eye-openers for me. But it’s easy not to do it — it can be expensive and time-consuming.
The truth is when you don’t have money, and you have tons of time, that’s the time to do it. And we think we can’t afford it. There are incredibly cheap ways to do this. You can work when you’re there, or you can work and then go there and live cheaply.
And one of the pieces of advice that I always give to young people that I wish had been given to me when I was younger was: have experiences, live lean, so that you can have choices and indulge in your creativity and your curiosity.
Because this idea that at 18 or 20, you’re supposed to know what it is that you’re gonna do in the world and lock in on that is absolutely ludicrous.
Rich Roll
“But it’s all too hard”. Hint: It’s not too hard
It’s easy to fall into the trap that this is all too hard.
It’s too hard to break out of the mould and seek new experiences, but it’s not.
Kevin mentioned a story from the movie Wall Street that challenges our beliefs about the resources required for world travel.
It’s best told by Rolf Potts’ in his excellent book Vagabonding where he refers to the most “outrageous throwaway line one hears in movies”:
When Charlie Sheen’s character — a promising big shot in the stock market — is telling his girlfriend about his dreams:
“I think if I can make a bundle of cash before I am thirty and get out of this racket,” he says, “I’ll be able to ride my motorcycle across China.”
Rolf balked in astonishment at this assertion:
After all, Charlie Sheen or anyone else could work for eight months as a toilet cleaner and have enough money to ride a motorcycle across China.
Even if they didn’t have their own motorcycle, another couple months of scrubbing toilets would earn them enough to buy one when they got to China.
And he outlined our misguided views on travel:
For some reason, we see long-term travel to faraway lands as a recurring dream or an exotic temptation, but not something that applies to the here and now.
Instead — out of our insane duty to fear, fashion, and monthly payments on things we don’t really need — we quarantine our travels to short, frenzied bursts.
In this way, we throw our wealth at an abstract notion called “lifestyle,” travel becomes just another accessory — a smooth-edged, encapsulated experience that we purchase the same way we buy clothing and furniture.
I realised how much we crave those peak experiences, especially since the pandemic locked us down and got us working from home.
The most exciting creators do interesting things.
One of these creators I admire is Paul Millerd, who is reimagining what work and life are by carving out a unique Pathless Path:
The pathless path is an alternative to the default path.
It is an embrace of uncertainty and discomfort.
It’s a call to adventure in a world that tells us to conform.
For me, it’s also a gentle reminder to laugh when things feel out of control and trusting that an uncertain future is not a problem to be solved.
Paul Millerd
We don’t have to follow the conventional rule book of what the status quo tells us is the right path in life.
I have been cheering on some of my new creator friends experimenting with the digital nomad lifestyle.
For example:
Ryan Jeearry, who I mentioned last week, a former accountant from London, moved to Bali for several months to travel and work as a wellbeing coach and online creator.
Tom Spark, also from the UK, has travelled around Thailand while building his creator business. I enjoyed his ability to meet new people and record podcast conversations while exploring Asia.
Now these guys are fellow creators who, I would say, started at similar times as me and are on a similar path.
They haven’t (yet!) built an audience of millions.
But they are finding creative ways to make it work at this early stage.
Which is super inspiring!
And because of that experience they are putting themselves through, they will create unique and engaging content and be able to serve their audience in deeper ways.
I love seeing people challenge the conventional belief that you have to “make it” first before reaping the benefits
It reminds me of Tim Ferriss’ description of the “New Rich” in The 4-Hour Workweek:
The New Rich are those who abandon the deferred-life plan and create luxury lifestyles in the present using the currency of the New Rich:
Time and mobility.
This is an art and a science we will refer to as Lifestyle Design.
You can make it work
My own challenge of this was planning a move from Australia to London, UK, back when I was in my late 20s.
I dreamed of living and working overseas.
But I placed it in the too-hard basket.
It was so overwhelming the idea of up and moving to another country.
Where do we start?
There were three big challenges:
- I had just gotten married — shouldn’t we start a family?
- We had good jobs — why quit and start over?
- We had just bought a house — how would we afford to pay off our Australian house and rent/live overseas?
But this dream of living in another culture was essential to me.
It was a bucket list life goal.
It turns out those challenges were all limiting beliefs.
That voice of resistance telling me, “It’s all too hard. Don’t bother trying.”
But things surprisingly fell into place quite quickly once we did a bit of research and took action:
- The trip was reframed as a “two-year working honeymoon”.
- My wife secured a new job in London before we left, and I landed a great role within a month of the move.
- We found tenants and rented our house before leaving. And temporarily moved in with my wife’s parents before jetting off.
This was a real mindset shock for me, as I now realised how simple big change can be if we are willing to take the chance and proactively seek solutions.
When we are in a resourceful state, it’s amazing what we can come up with.
Stop blaming a lack of resources
Time is one of the greatest resources.
If you have time, there is no reason you can’t get started.
The rich have money. The wealthy have time.
Kevin Kelly
And we can always squeeze more time out of our days when something is important enough to us.
I have heard big creators say this is your David vs Goliath advantage as a small creator. You might not have a big budget and team. But you can do the little things well that takes time — one on one with a more personalised human service.
Do things that don’t scale.
Paul Graham
Paul Graham
But when it comes to getting started in this creator space, we probably need less than we believe.
Kevin explained a game he played with his kids:
I say, I have a magic wand.
I’m gonna give you a billion dollars.
But only if you tell me what you’re gonna do with it.
What are you gonna do with a billion dollars?
And his kids would typically respond with something like buying a lovely house or going on a trip around the globe.
But Kevin pointed out this wouldn’t dent the billion dollars. Within six months of interest accumulation, the pot would be back up to a billion dollars. So they haven’t really spent any of their money yet.
So he would challenge them a little deeper. What could you do?
And then they would come up with some business venture, for example, a knitwear store or a daycare centre.
And he would say back:
Okay. You don’t need a billion dollars for that!
Most people’s dreams are not gated by money. They’re gated by other things.
Kevin Kelly
Our limiting beliefs get in the way.
The lesson here is that people have huge dreams and assume they need an immense fortune to get started.
But this often isn’t true.
They are finding ways to avoid pursuing that dream. They blame it on a lack of funding and make it sound unnecessarily complicated.
Do you ever catch yourself doing this?
Maybe you have a dream you have been avoiding as you don’t have the means to get started.
Breakdown what it would actually take to get started.
But in its most simple format.
Don’t overcomplicate it.
The goal is to start, not take over the world, in the first step.
So you may find you need less than initially thought.
For example, you may want to be an influential thought leader.
Start by posting your thoughts online.
That’s not hard or expensive.
Don’t jump ahead and make things seem harder.
Over time other things will come when you are ready, e.g. a podcast, a course, or a community.
But don’t get sucked into those false promises of thinking you need “more” resources to get started (or be happy!).
Be the “only”
Don’t aim to be the best. Aim to be the only.
And that “only” is where you’ll be much more satisfied, happy, and probably have enough.
The “billions” is another person’s success. That should not be your success.
It’s someone else’s movie if you’re trying to make a billion dollars.
You want to go be the star in your own movie.
Kevin Kelly
But what is the “only”?
That sounds hard and scary.
Being contrarian and thinking differently is challenging as we often face criticism and judgment.
But this isn’t some radical change that happens overnight. It’s something we cultivate over many years. It becomes our life’s work.
For most of us, it’s a long, meandering, winding road with lots of detours, right turns, setbacks, turnarounds, and everything else.
To arrive there, and you don’t actually ever arrive. You’re always on that journey of trying to figure out what it is about yourself that is special and unique.
So there is a paralysis I’ve seen in young people like, “I don’t know what I’m passionate about. I don’t know. And so I can’t really start. I can’t give 100% until I know what that is.”
And I’ve become convinced that the proper way to start is to master something.
And then that mastery becomes a platform.
Kevin Kelly
I have often said here that the path unfolds as we walk.
We have to take action to uncover our passion.
We have to try various things and then commit to something.
That passion rises out of chasing mastery.
If you wait for that passion to strike, you will probably never get anywhere.
It doesn’t matter where you start because that’s not where you’re gonna be ending.
If you look at any remarkable person you admire, they didn’t start there. They arrived there.
And the more distinctive, unique, special and only they are, the more likely they started way away from where they actually discovered what they’re good at.
And so don’t be concerned about where you’re starting, as long as you’re moving forward deliberately trying to get better. You will arrive in your in the right direction.
Kevin Kelly
Often we don’t know which way to go, so we should just start.
This reminds me of this quote from Alice in Wonderland:
Alice: Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?
The Cheshire Cat: That depends a good deal on where you want to get to.
Alice: I don’t much care where.
The Cheshire Cat: Then it doesn’t much matter which way you go.
Alice: …So long as I get somewhere.
The Cheshire Cat: Oh, you’re sure to do that, if only you walk long enough.
Lewis Carroll
So much wisdom hidden in a children’s book.
Side note – reread some of your favourite books from your childhood, and see how they land differently.
Our life path is not pre-planned
Kevin didn’t have his career all planned out beforehand.
He didn’t set out to become an author, renowned futurist and co-found the world’s most popular technology magazine, Wired.
No, he followed his unique interests and strengths. He tried things and failed, but through the process found mastery, and all those beautiful things happened.
And that’s what you should do.
But isn’t this a privileged position to be able to consider pursuing our creative dreams?
This is how Kevin addressed that question:
If you have any chance to do that, in some ways, you’re cheating us by not taking advantage of that.
That’s why you do art. You do art, in part for yourself, but also because you owe it to us.
That’s the deal. Meaning that you’re alive, you have this chance, and you have a genius that nobody else has.
And if you can share that with us, we all benefit.
Kevin Kelly
So I’ll leave you with this:
Suppose you have any means to make your creative dream a reality. Even if it is a tiny possibility, you must bring that vision to life.
The world is better off for your contribution.
So start building!
Reflection
Connect the dots. Break your life to date down into 10 interesting points that shaped you.
- How does this come together to create a unique opportunity as a creator?
- What “time-wasting” detours are there that later became blessings?
- What unprofitable passions have you discovered that brought a new skillset to your repertoire?
- What little adventure are you shy about sharing? There could be an undiscovered relevance in your next steps.
How could you start to model: “Don’t aim to be the best. Be the only”?
What is one important goal you have been putting off?
How can you move from blaming a lack of resources to getting started with what you already have?
How can you start embracing the “unbeaten path”?
A quote to ponder
Escaping the 9-5 is tough because you’re not aware of other options until you’re in deep.
You’re catapulted from school to college to cubicle and clawing your way out feels impossible.
I used to drive to work dreaming of a creative career, then come home too exhausted to make it happen.
But despite what we’re told, a fulfilling career isn’t a silly pipe dream. Not anymore. There’s a clear path to digital freedom.
Kieran Drew
Final thoughts
Today’s writing background playlist was Hunky Dory by David Bowie.
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Cheers!
