MetaChat - Moving away from the commercial

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11 August 2008

Moving away from the commercial I first read this from Keri Smith in December, near the start of my KaosPilots chaos, and it still rings true to me now:→[More:]

2. I did at some point learn that all of the things that I had done to try and "make it" were actually bullshit (ego driven) and had nothing to do with being an artist or living in a way that made the world a better place. These things included (for me), goal setting, networking, promoting, marketing, and also wanting to "get ahead".

I wish I knew more people with this philosophy. However, they're hard to find amongst all the noise and nonsense of SEO and "social media gurus" and "BE THE FIRST IN BUSINESS" yadda yadda.

I left my Entrepreneurship & Innovation class because it was too full of smug guys in suits talking about making money without any concern for social value. Yet I am also frustrated with people so deeply into the arts/activist scenes who think money is always evil, and that all businesses are corrupt - it disrespects smaller businesses and people who just want to make a honest living.

But how do you find a happy medium? How do you still achieve what you want without falling into the networking/marketing trap? How do you find other people who support you without trapping you into numbers, figures, statistics? Or, conversely, who appreciate your need to create without shunning you because you are not averse to mainstream methods?

Where are these people? Is Keri the only one?

post by: divabat at: 18:42 | 2 comments

That's a great article.

But how do you find a happy medium?
I work in a place where the income required for me to have a fulfilling, healthy life is relatively low. This lifestyle can be reproduced all over the place; it just means making compromises. I can't live in Manhattan on my income, but by living in more provincial places, I can still do good work and be recognized for it. This means that I have time to work on my own personal stuff - be it a blog, or taking photos, or walking around new neighborhoods, or reading Jane Eyre novels on Project Gutenberg. I don't feel a need to get ahead, because I know the passage of time draws us ahead, and I can only be so prepared for it. Not to say that I'm a complete fatalist, but I don't try to make things happen if the process to get there totally takes away from what I'm doing now. So I wouldn't spend 60 hours making a website to promote my teaching/editing/tutoring consulting skills, but I'd probably spend 5-10.

How do you still achieve what you want without falling into the networking/marketing trap?
Luckily, as a teacher, I don't really have to market myself outside of when I change jobs, and then it's purely a question of finding the best places to apply rather than applying everywhere. I asked around my circles to find a school that offered what I wanted to experience, found the one school that fit in that niche, e-mailed them my resume and a cover e-mail, and explicitly asked them for a job. And I got one!

How do you find other people who support you without trapping you into numbers, figures, statistics?
Family and friends! I have a career which NO ONE in my life has, and I think that means that people are unusually willing to hear me out when I need something or when I have something to say. A bit paradoxical, that.

Or, conversely, who appreciate your need to create without shunning you because you are not averse to mainstream methods?
This one is a little trickier - I have friends asking me, "Wouldn't you be happier as a person who earns more money/a lawyer/a teacher here in the States/a roving newspaper reporter/yadda yadda yadda...?" And I have to really tell them that, well, I'm just not interested in working 90 hour weeks, or commuting 50 miles a day, or owning a car, or having to shelve all my personal projects (some of which, like baking and writing letters and keeping in touch with people, are derided by society - consciously and unconsciously - as wastes of time!). And living in a country with state-paid health care, or inexpensive higher education, or where I can get around without a car gives me more freedom to pursue those projects and refine them. The people in my life who haven't lived abroad don't get that - but the ones who are closest to me, and the ones who have been abroad for a long time, do.

So no: she's not the only one. (I like to think I'm not the only one. )

posted by mdonley 11 August | 19:08

How do you still achieve what you want without falling into the networking/marketing trap?

That's your agent's job.

posted by Ardiril 11 August | 19:46

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