Artists and startups

Imagine you have 2 friends. One of them says they want to be an artist the other says they want to be in a start up. Think about the situation for both of them. Think about your gut reaction to those two life styles....

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Are you finished thinking about it? Most people have a reaction like this. For the artist they think something like "You will be constantly living in poverty. There is almost no chance for success. You are wasting your life". For the start up people tend to think about something like this: "Wow perhaps they are the next instagram and will be billionaires. What a cushy job they might have. I wish I was in a startup".

Believe it or not these two paths are almost exactly the same. The only difference is that startups are in and art is out. There are several similarities between choosing a path in art and a startup they include.

- Low probability of success

- Low or no money

- You will always be asking for money

- You are more about the cause than the product

- You may or may not do any work

- Substance abuse

Yep, being in a startup is a lot like being an artist. The only difference is that starups get more funding. I am also not joking about the substance abuse either. I recently went to a startup meetup and I swear one of the people there was high.

Not that any of this is bad I just find it funny that people tend to think of both of these paths as different. If you want to be an artist or in a startup go for it.

Sometimes I see a startup get a ton of money for something that could literally be accomplished in a month with a few thousand dollars. Why do these ideas get so much praise? Furthermore, Im not sure what people do all day. Im assuming a lot of these startups as for money so they can have a trendy work environment. This means that employees show up when they want, they have a cool and trendy office and they want a work environment similar to Microsoft google or Apple. Fair enough. I understand that you can't work in your mom's basement and I also understand that environment does affect productivity. Maybe it's because I love the work part of my day better than any other part so this rubs me the wrong way. 

There is a fine line between working to hard and working too little. When I start work it's go time. It is time to work and it is time to work hard. It's no surprise when millennials run the show it work becomes sponsored by Disney (I'm a millennial by the way). 

Being a musician in a band is a dream experience. You get to make tons of money while paying music, you get laid, you are famous. Obviously music and art is not as respected in the past so if you were born in the 80s then what else is there for you to do? Well, you can think up an idea, go get some money and bam you are living a rockstar like lifestyle. Of course this is better than going to school and trying to find a job.

Maybe Im the kid who turns down the music at the party but at the end of the day you should work. It would be nice to go back to the notion where you could go and work hard at a degree and then find a job instead of finding a weird asymmetrical way of making money. 

Working for multiple companies better than working for one

Imagine that you have one or two degrees and still cannot find work. You are working as a server or another dead end type job and you hate it. You wish that you could get a 50k or 60k job but it seems so far away. You slog away at your job wishing and pushing for the best.

Why not work for several companies by selling a product?

You can make a product and get many channel partners to sell your product. Your product can be marketed to several different lists that any company has. You can sell your product in many different store. All of a sudden you have 50k coming in from each channel partner.

I should also add that making a product and selling to several different outlets might be less work than a job but the financial benifit is much more.

Why haven't you authored a book yet?

If you have completed high school, university or college why haven't you authored a book yet. If you are underemployed then you should really think about authoring books. When I was in college I authored 17 books before leaving. I also self published an 90 minute long album of video game music before I left as well.

You can author as many books as you like. You can learn new skills by going through the motions of creating something and selling it. Chances are you learned none of those skills in your entire school career. But remember all of those essays you wrote? Why not use all of those skills to write a book or 12.

One thing that is clear about finding a job in this current state especially if you are young is that you have to take what you know and apply it usually in a different way. So what are you waiting for. Find a topic and get started. There is no excuse not to start.

What self releasing says to an employer

When you are an employer like myself there are two kinds of employees you hire. You hire people to simply do the job and there are employees who you want to think. If you self release you will be never hired as a person who will simply do the job. Is that a good thing or a bad thing?

For me I am a thinker and I like to solve problems and be creative I am not an employee that simply shows up work then leaves. I like to live and breath the company.

The only problem is that after 2008 there are far fewer thinking jobs and far more doing jobs.

Self releasing tells the employer that you can get up in the morning and create results. Self releasing is the easiest way for you to put yourself in a different camp then all of the gossipy blowhards who don't release. On top of that you can make money along the way. When I released Circa my life changed for the better. I got contracts and I really put my name out there.

It makes sense that employers want to hire the smartest and the most ambitious. But the hardest thing that I had to learn is that being smart and ambitious and a critical thinker will not land you a job as a "grunt". "Grunts" just fill the position and aren't supposed to think outside the box. Don't get me wrong grunts are great and they help a lot.

So next time you apply for a job and you don't get hired perhaps it was because you showed initiative where initiative was frowned upon.

Opportunity costs with online education versus real world education

I much prefer learning online versus learning in the classroom. In the 1990's I much preferred learning on my own versus learning in the classroom. Today we are actually really lucky that you can learn a variety of topics in your own home for a fraction of the cost it would normally take. 

If you want to learn something all you have to do is buy a course and learn it. By the end of the day you can cram more information in because real world factors are taken out of the equation. You don't have to commute your body to a place to hear somebody speak. You don't have to wait for people to get settled. With online education you just learn. 

On top of all of this the people who like to teach online (like me) generally try to give something real world schools cannot. This something is practical application right away. In most of my courses I say that you should release what you create. In most schools they are very against you self releasing and I feel that it is a huge secret to success to actually release something because all of the lazy people are not releasing anything.

When you think about it releasing your own material makes so much sense today. It almost should be mandatory to release something it can even be as simple as a math book for kids. 

So really it makes a whole lot of sense to just start learning as soon as possible. Schools probably won't get this right for the next 10 or 20 years so anybody hoping into the online education boat will naturally be ahead of everybody else. 

If you like it so much just do it.

The worst part about college is the hype and the second worst part is the social malaise. People tend to not grow out of that instead they continue that well past their degree. I constantly hear people complain about not getting a job and to be honest I was one of those people too. However, if you like it so much then why don't you start your own business? If you like it so much then spend your spare time doing whatever it is you want to do.

There is no excuse not to start.

If you truly like something, it shouldn't be a chore and you should just do it. For me working 12 hour days is not a chore and it isn't hard for me to do. You can train yourself to work such hours just start with a couple of hours. Work on weekends and improve yourself. You may not see results right away but eventually you will see the results so keep trying.

If you like just do it, don't complain.

Project motivation

The biggest motivation for me to finish a project is to get onto the next one right away. When I get about 75% into a project, I really cannot stand to work on it anymore because I have a burning urge to work on something else.  In fact the only reason I can plow through that project is because I really want to work on the other project so badly. I of course have to finish the first project because otherwise it would be a waste of time. What motivates you to complete a project?