Commerce and Sense

As a young professional trying to figure a lot of things out, it dawned on me while watching an old ESPN clip of Mike Tyson of all things, that in order to be succesful, you have to be able to take a punch.

Mike said it best, “Everybody has a plan until they get hit!” So true. If you fashion yourself as anyone who ever had dreams of doing special things in life, you have to accept it an be ready for it. YOU WILL GET HIT!

I’ve lost count at the amount of times I’ve been told ‘no’. I’d like to say that it loses it’s sting but it doesn’t. The best thing that you can do is learn to deal with the pain.

You may ask yourself, “What the fuck does that really mean? Spare me the cliches!” Fair  enough. I started my career in the creative field and became an internet production artist for a fairly well known clothing company. I’m great at my job. I routinely turn in stellar performance reviews, I have great relationships with my co-workers and a fairly respectable mid-level standing in the company…but I hate my job. Production is cool, it’s not necessarily something that you can build off of. Production is the red headed step child in the design world. The only future for most production artists…is more production, whereas designers find themselves as creative directors, art directors etc.

I saw the writing on the wall and resolved myself to make a move now, while i’m young and without too much baggage. If career change is this hard for a 25 year old, I can’t imagine what it’s like when you’re 35+. I’ve gone on a number of interesting interviews. Why interesting? Because no sooner than showing my resume, I’ve already been pigeonholed as a ‘production artist’. Nevermind that I’m incredibly knowledgeable about the career path that I would like to pursue. It’s like it doesn’t even matter. This process can be incredibly frustrating but rewarding?

Yes, I said rewarding! No, I’m not on crack. These setbacks are rewarding because they make you understand just how bad you want something. That’s what seperates the greats versus the pretenders. Everyone gets hit, not everyone gets up.

While most people look at Michael Jordan getting cut from his HS basketball team as the catalyst for his legendary work ethic I prefer to look at his horrible play in the 1995 Eastern Conference Finals as his moment.

Jordan went home that summer and worked. He heard that he lost a step, that he wasn’t the old MJ, that he no longer had the killer instinct. Next year’s Bulls were crowned the greatest team ever.

Always get back up and put in the hard work. You don’t fail until you stop trying. Plus, people tend to forget all those times you were down, once things turn around.