Okay, this newsletter is going to be a little different because I have to share something I found and I can’t make it any longer than it already is – sorry!
Why, you ask?
Well, because it made me emotional… and because I still feel that way from time to time (read: every day. Such is the life of a freelancer 🤷🏻♀️).
I recently started curating my blog; not only the posts you can see, but also the so-called drafts. By drafts I don’t mean posts that I’m going to publish as soon as possible, they just need a final tweak.
I mean diary entries that I write on my blog and keep to myself :)
Some are pretty good and I want to find ways to use them (similar to how I put together Mindscapes but I’ll use them for future posts, not books) and others are just… actually, let’s not go there *pats old self on the back*.
Anyway, I found a really interesting one that is unfortunately still very relevant to what’s happening in the creative industries. (TLDR: Young? New to the industry? Inexperienced? Hang in there… maybe forever.)
In early 2016, I was working in a small café in Angel (in London) in between two jobs in publishing. I was only there for a few months, but I really enjoyed it. Sort of.
The café was part of an arts trust, and it was a really cool place. The customers were all kinds of interesting, and there were lots of free coffee and cake and nice people to work with. 🍰
And, it turns out I wrote in my diary about someone I worked with! Unfortunately I can’t remember her name and have no idea what she’s up to now, but maybe you’ll find my reflections interesting.
Let me know what you think! ↓
On Creative Minds at Work (2016)
I work in a café with another girl I like a lot.
She’s smart, funny, hardworking and has a large palette of interests that include photography, fashion, art (mainly visual, graphic design, and some other stuff I don’t understand). She has a degree in media studies from an Italian university and has done creative work for many organisations.
And she’s been at the café for over a year now.
In the meantime, she’s been constantly applying for jobs in the creative industries, but has only had a few interviews. The usual feedback is that she comes across as indecisive. Someone even told her that he would feel bad if he hired her and thus discourage her from pursuing her other interests!
At this point she’s exhausted and doesn’t know what to do to get a job; any job that doesn’t involve making coffee and sandwiches for hipsters every day. And she asked me what could be so bad about just wanting a job!
Sigh.
Let me tell you something about me now. I know I want to write. I’ve always known it. I’d probably rather write X than Y, but that doesn’t mean X is out of the question. I once told an agent that I’d like to work in content marketing, and they told me I had to narrow it down. Erm… narrow it down to what?
But what if I didn’t know that either, like my friend here? What if I too had a set of interests I’d like to pursue, and I was open to pursuing any of them? Then I would probably be told, in a slightly more patronizing tone, that I need to narrow it down. But why?
I saw a great TED video about this: ‘What do you want to be when you grow up? If you’re not sure you want to do just one thing for the rest of your life, you’re not alone.’ In this insightful talk, writer and artist Emilie Wapnick describes the kind of people she calls multipotentialites, who pursue a range of interests and careers over the course of their lives. Are you one of them?
Unlike most employers, if I were in a position to hire people, and someone intelligent, resourceful, hardworking, interested, talented, energetic and maybe with a degree – but not necessarily – came to me and asked for a job, I would give it to them.
No matter how many other passions they have, no matter if they don’t have their entire life path set yet, and no matter how burnt out they might look at first. Of course they would look burnt out!
I would ask myself: is this person flexible, trainable and willing to learn, grow and work hard? Do they have a lot of untapped potential because no one is willing to give them a chance? Are they also interested in the type of work I would have for them?
Well then, come on board, I’d say.
Come on board before you get stuck in a rut (in a café), run out of enthusiasm and drive, and your untapped potential gets watered down. Before you are told you don’t have what it takes because you have nowhere to put it, and you have lost your spark, your fire and your beautiful glow.
That can all be rekindled, because after all, it’s the creative work that sets you on fire.
We’re great people, us creatives. We’re curious, we love the world and what’s in it, and we’re always looking for the right kind of challenges. We don’t always know what we want to do, but we like to let ourselves drift and discover our next great passion.
It’s a shame to deprive us of the very work that makes us feel and look so alive. It’s a shame not to give people like the girl at the café a chance just because she hasn’t narrowed it down to paved roads, and white picket fences and set-in-stone job titles.
Because aren’t most of the things we enjoy in life the work of a great creative mind at work, after all?
But that’s the key.
At work.
How do you think you felt about working in the creative industries in 2016, or whenever you were at the beginning of your career? Do you think you would still resonate with that version of yourself?
Anca (the 2024 version) x
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Anca Dunavete 
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