Finally a day off today! So what do you do when you have a day off and have no studies whatsoever? You’re studying and doing research :$. I’ve been working out my notes of Buma Rocks! and thinking about a lot of stuff. I tend to do that a lot now, don’t I?
A friend of mine had a consult today about her thesis. The main problems I hear about from friends, who will graduate this year, are about their theory frameworks. Since we’re all planning to work in the creative industry (mostly anything but conventional) it can be hard to find specific theories. It’s a field that develops so quickly and if you’d ask a professional in the field, they’d say there are no such things as theories (which in my opinion is just a theory as well!). They keep coming back to passion, humanity, skills and hard work. This I’ve noticed too during interviews and internships.
In the last weeks I helped some of the students out, because I learn from it myself everytime. It is definitely true what the people in the business are saying and I see it a lot. Small businesses going strong, doing what they love to do and learn along the way. Working out their own methods, finetuning them and they’ll see what’s next. Not that they don’t have any plans or just muddle along. No it is a conscious choice to work this way, to take on the projects they want to succeed and they know they’ll love to work on. It’s not about making money. It is making work what they’re passionate about, but make enough to go on. As I see it, these thoughts are theories as well. Just try to see the bigger picture, don’t think to hard, make it abstract. You think there might not be specific tools, theories or methods you should use as the base of your practice and that they’re hard to find, but believing in passion to be your way to succes is just a theory too.
It’s like the theory of the book I’m reading from Chris Guillebeau, about convergence. It’s like the Golden Circle theory of Simon Sinek, where your passion is the foundation.
For those who haven’t seen it yet, but I bet most of you have!:
To my friend I explained my idea of passion as a theory like this: Steve Jobs probably was never conscious about using theories for his succes, like you have to do now with your thesis. I guess he never worked out models when he started. He had a passion and the will to make something happen, possessed the right set of skills and failed enough times to learn and do new things. With a pretty word we call it innovation. Now, this we could use as a theory, because working like this could work. But, did he know that at the time when he started? Let’s say he didn’t and there was only one way to find out: to undertake action and experience. Learn from your own experiences and see ‘applying a theory’ as learning from other people’s experiences. If they’re not written down, be the one to write them down. I know school wants us to use books and literature and it is possible. Just break down your questions to make it more general, but remember school is just a tool, where showing you can use/apply (written) theories is a mandatory. Rules and structures are there to be broken and they change all the time. You can choose to not do what a school tells you to do, when you’re sure you can do it in a different way. Just explain why you’re doing it that way. In the end you’re doing it for your career and you alone. There are many ways to learn and to succeed. Besides you’re not going to be the next copy of best practices with their strategies in your industry, right? You’re probably out to become the next unique thing!
Now this phrase comes to mind (funny: the theory of everything) of Stephen Hawking: however difficult life may seem, there’s always something you can do and succeed at. So trust in yourselfs and blow them away ^^ They’re telling you for 4 years to think out of the box, so go ahead!
To explain my post title: we can keep planning and ofcourse it’s a very important aspect, but to take action is more important. That’s where you’ll really start to learn and experience.
As for action and passion worth tons of theories. I have the opportunity to take a course this summer named the summer entrepeneur. I’m really excited to apply, but there’s also this tiny downside. I wanted to work extra this summer for my trip two Australia! Two bucket list items! What should I do, what should I do? 0.0