How to Make Creativity a Reality (and the project of a lifetime it turned into)
Creatives typically admire other Creatives. We watch video after video, interview after interview, read blog after blog. The problem is although we’re exposing ourselves to a lot of information, we’re usually not soaking that information in. I recently tried to change this and it led to the most complex, most insane creative project I’ve ever undertaken. Here’s what happened:
INGREDIENT #1
I was watching my daily fix of Chase Jarvis Live, a great episode with Tim Ferriss where Tim shares a ton of wisdom nuggets. During the interview at one point Chase says that a lot of his client work comes from his personal projects. He says that he funds these personal projects with his own money. Pause. That’s tip number one, when you’re learning information online you need to pause the video or stop reading the blog and just think about the idea you just heard. Give it at least a minute, then continue. This helps your brain isolate the idea and makes it easier to recall later.
INGREDIENT #2
The following week I was reading a chapter of Tim Ferriss’ book The Four Hour Workweek where he explains how you need to dedicate time every few months to pursuing your dreams rather than putting them off for work’s sake. Pause. He explains that making a small conscious effort to pursuing the activities you enjoy and spending money on those pursuits will inevitably make you happier, which will inevitably help you work better, which will inevitably make you more money, etc. He also said start doing this immediately, today, like right now. Pause.
So by this time I’m feeling super inspired. We’ve all been in this state, where you’re so inspired and you start thinking of all these ideas you want to pursue. Then you say to yourself, “yeah next week I’m going to plan out this brilliant idea and it’ll be amazing.” And this is precisely where so many of us (me included) go wrong. We put off our big ideas for a week, or two, or three. The idea dwindles a little, but more often than not another idea inspires us later and we forget about idea #1.
Stop the cycle of wasted ideas! Here’s how: take action today. But wait a minute, you may say, I can’t just leave my job and go pursue this crazy idea. And you’re right. See this is where most people (again, me included) go wrong. We think that we have to execute our idea in just one long dedicated session. But that’s probably the worst thing you can do.
It’s extremely daunting to take on any great idea in one fell swoop. Instead here’s what I’ve found works better. Starting your idea today really means send out an email, make a phone call, make some kind of interaction with the people who you need to make this idea happen. Do not start researching. Researching is the death of ideas because it leads to overwhelm. On the other hand, contacting somebody makes you feel accountable for continuing execution. After all, who wants to be the guy that suggests something and then has to back peddle and say sorry I’m too afraid to do it now.
So here’s how my version of this scenario went down. I knew that I wanted to shoot more action-sports and really make a name for myself as an action-sports videographer. So, following Chase’s advice, I devised this crazy idea of shooting a Parkour video in London. I followed Tim’s advice and sent out emails immediately to a bunch of Parkour organizations (for more info on why see this post LINK). I got replies back later that week, which was good because it was like a friendly inbox reminder saying, “keep working on this!” But the bad news was that most of them wanted money and a lot of it.
I knew I had something going here, but I knew I had to sweeten the deal for them and offer something other than money. Here’s where Ingredient #3 comes in.
INGREDIENT #3
I was watching some videos by Ben Von Wong, who is an amazing photographer and does a ton of personal projects. One of his most recent personal projects was called UV Insanities (video below). He had created these amazing UV photos by pulling together body artists, models, and crew to complete a very unique and beautiful project. Pause.
So, as you can guess at this point I put together Ingredients 1, 2 and 3 into what would become an insane dream shoot. The missing ingredient, aka making this a UV Parkour shoot, was all it took to get the parkour guys on board for free. It was my new unique selling point, I was no longer asking them for a favor, but I was doing them a favor by providing them with a unique video they could add to their portfolio. By building little by little what started out as a small passion project grew into an enormous production involving 15 cast and crew, choreographers, gaffers, rental houses, body artists, and a ton of people who were all inspired just as I was.
So here’s the take away. When you watch videos online or read blog posts, take some time to think about how you can apply these things that inspire you into your own life. And then remember, start immediately. Big ideas always start as small ideas. Let your ideas grow, don’t let them dwindle.
I hope this post is helpful and gets you just as inspired as I was. You can see the final results from our work below and please feel free to share your own stories of inspiration in the comments below.
Till next time! Stay creative, stay inspired!
~Bogdan Z.