When our industry is utterly indifferent to our dreams

Are you the kind of person who always felt a disharmony between how the industry works and how you work?

You’re not alone. Many professionals feel this way. We’re not agreeable to having our pride and joy changed from beginning to end by producers, mangers, committees and other horsemen of the creative apocalypse.

This is our art, damnit!

The question we have to ask ourselves is:

Can we find a balance between the two? Whatever industry we belong to, can we use some of our creative powers to be more, as the scriptures say, in the world, but not of it?

Think of it as a cognitive behavioral exercise.

We accept reality on reality’s terms.

It might be true that the purpose of most industry parties is to see where we are in the food chain. It might be true that our industry is capable of turning success into failure by a lack of attention. It might be true the industry isn’t dying, but simply something we’ve outgrown. It might be true that our industry is utterly indifferent to our dreams. It might be true that our industry thrives on the blood of insecure, naive and needy artists willing to have their soul stolen from right out under their nose.

But we don’t have to let that reality corrupt our mindset.

During a major recession years ago, my mentor gave me some advice on this issue:

“Just because the economy sucks, doesn’t mean your economy can’t rock. Your economy is how you manage yourself in relation to the world. Invest in that.”

What if we made a promise to ourselves not to engage in any conversation about what’s wrong with our industry? What we if we took a vow of complete abstinence from complaining about it period?

That might that take us out of the victim position in regard to it. This mindset won’t stop the industry gears from grinding away, but it might help us better cope with reality on reality’s terms.

Hell, I’ve worked jobs in advertising, travel, media and publishing, all of which are industries that are embarrassing at best and mind controlling at worst. Just awful.

And since there nothing I’m going to do to reverse that, bemoaning how greedy or unethical the industry is no longer part of my vocabulary. My aim is abundance and gratitude, not rancor and entitlement.

Nobody really notices or cares, but hey, it helps me sleep past night. 

LET ME ASK YA THIS…
How will you manage the disharmony between how you work and how the industry works?