In the world of creativity and art you hear the term ‘make it’ a lot. I don’t
mean with regards to the creation of the art, but rather
in terms of whether or not you have achieved success.
‘When do you think you will make it then?’
‘Did you see that x seems to be finally making it?’
‘When will you give up on this if you haven’t made it by then?’
If you are creative and are serious about your craft then you will
probably recognise the sentiment behind these questions. Many
people ask these sorts of questions without thinking, yet when
you actually consider what is being said, the whole concept
doesn’t really make any sense. It is loaded with false assumptions
about reality and carries a weight to bear upon the artist that
declares, albeit inadvertently that they are not yet valid.
For the artist, this can damage our view and understanding of
success. By passing the job of defining our hopes and dreams to
people outside of our context (informed in all likelihood by
popular mass media), we allow the way we see our art and our
relationship with it to be influenced by fabricated notions of
what success ‘should’ look like. We are then in real danger of
narrowing our own dreams to stay within these tiny abstract and
arbitrary boundaries.
This is true in any field of work and essentially comes down to
the underlying presence of ignorance and stereotypes within us
all. When you talk to someone outside of your own area of
expertise you draw on what limited knowledge you have of their
area, and this is made up of ideas rather than experience. But
these stereotypes are possibly more powerful within the creative
world because it is public opinion that artists can want to either
influence or adhere to. This means that we are in turn influenced
by public opinion on what constitutes a successful artist, even
though there is no consensus on such a thing. Public opinion is
that, as artists, we must be ‘trying to make it’, which on the
whole (eg. for a musician), to the general public maybe means
getting a record deal and being on radio/TV. For the writer it
might be getting a book published and being short-listed for a big
literary award etc.
Success is therefore measured specifically by what happens
beyond the work itself. People don’t care if you have written an
astonishing 800-page masterpiece that would easily hold up next
to War and Peace. Unless you are lucky enough to find an
acclaimed enough agent who can be bothered to read it and pass
it on to a reputable publisher who is willing to take a chance on
it so that you can earn abundant royalties and receive a large
advance for your next book, you have failed. At least that is true
in accordance with general public opinion.
If you are rich and famous you have made it.
If you sign a record deal you have made it.
If you are/have neither of these then you must be failing for they
are the very definition of success.
Take a moment to think about some of the ways success in
your field might be stereotypically measured by public
opinion. Is this a satisfactory way to measure it? Have you
been influenced into defining success in these terms?
More often than not public perception of success, in any field is
measured by image and fortune – everything is seen through the
money lens. This is designed to leave us in a perpetual state of
discontentment.
It is blindly assumed that if you have made money and notoriety
you are successful. Most of us know somewhere deep down that
this is not true, but we still believe it. We also know that
happiness is not tied up in these things, but we still assume that
we would be happy if we had them, and again strive to get them.
Success is encountered in the personal external rewards rather
than the product of what we do. We falsely identify ourselves
then not by what we do, but rather in what we have and what
others think we are. The notion of success has therefore become
extrinsic rather than intrinsic, and we chase after meaningless
expectations rather than real world value.
Do you listen and believe other peoples’ expectations of what
success should mean for you?
Have you ever made a list of what you would genuinely like to
achieve?
What is the heart of your ambition – is it intrinsic or
extrinsic? i.e. Do you focus on the dream of fame and fortune, or
is there something more meaningful driving your passion for
your work that you would (ideally) do whether you got paid or
not?
This is an important question to answer when it comes to
knowing where you want to take your work, and what you will
say the next time someone talks to you about ‘making it’.
Perhaps you could ask them what they mean. Chances are they
wont really know because they wont really have ever thought
about it.
In the next post I will be talking about the problem of fear
and how we can sometimes sabotage our own potential
because we are afraid of abstract consequences.
