("Little Picture" by Arthur Dove)
♫ I know nothing about it
♫ I turn my thinking on to make sure it's aligned with yours
♫ I'm obviously doubtful how could anyone
♫ Turn my opinion around
♫ I'm trying to understand what all the fuss is about
♫ If I admit to myself I built my love around
♫ All the lovers paint a pretty little
♫ Picture inside my head, yeah
♫ While all the other ones
♫ Pick a little image out for themselves
- So one of the hardest things
sometimes as a creative is having
this feeling of you have all this potential,
all this built-up potential inside you,
and it just hasn't been unlocked yet.
You haven't had the right opportunities
or the right brands come along,
or the right projects to really showcase your talent
and all of the skill that you have as a creative.
You start looking at other creatives and you think,
oh man, they're only 18 and they're doing amazing things,
or they're 30 years old and they're already winning Oscars.
What the heck am I doing?
And you start feeling this pressure
like I should be the best that I can be at 20 or 30.
That should be the peak of my career.
And there's nothing wrong with wanting
to be ambitious when you're young.
I think it's actually really good.
And I think it's dumb when people say
you can't do something just because you're young.
I think when you're young,
you actually have so little responsibilities
and so much free time that you can actually
do a lot when you're young and just have
a lot of energy to go out and do stuff.
But, the problem is that pressure
that you're putting on yourself to be the best
at age 20 or 30 or whatever that number is for you.
And that pressure can be crippling.
It can literally stop you dead in your tracks
so that you're not even creating anything
because you just feel like such a failure
when you start comparing yourself to other people.
And this brings me to this interesting thing
I realized one day when I was reading
a Humans of New York post.
It was this girl who was,
I think like a sketching artist, or something,
and she was studying.
And she said in that little quote that
she's aiming to peak at 50 years old.
And that sparked something.
I really liked that.
And the reason why I liked that
is it dropped all that pressure.
All of a sudden, I started to think,
yeah, like I have a long career ahead of me.
Why would I wanna peak at 20 or 30 years old,
when I could aim to peak at 50?
I think that's what she meant
was not taking that pressure to be
the best ever at such a young age,
but instead taking your time.
Don't take that pressure on to yourself,
and aim to peak at 50.
(music continues)
♫ I'm trying to understand what all the fuss about
♫ If I admit to myself I built my love around
♫ All the lovers paint a pretty
♫ Little picture inside my head, yeah
♫ While all the other ones pick
♫ A little image out for themselves, yeah
So the reason why I like that idea
is that it gets rid of that pressure
that I need to be somebody.
I need to be somebody that's really good at something,
or somebody that has a lot of value or worth,
or a lot of money, or whatever that is
that you're thinking about.
All that pressure starts to fall away
when you realize that,
man I'm gonna be working for the next 30, 40 years.
I have a lot of time to peak
in whatever it is that I'm doing,
whether it's photography, or graphic design,
or film-making, or whatever you're doing.
You have a lot of time.
Don't take that pressure that you need to be
the best there is.
That when you look on YouTube and Vimeo,
all the top guys, that you need to be just like them
at a really young age.
That has nothing to do with it.
And when you start putting that pressure on yourself,
you will start feeling that crippling fear of just,
what if I don't make it,
what if I'm not that good,
what if I'm not that good at 20 or 30.
Am I a failure then?
You have absolutely no rush to become a success.
No rush at all.
And there are no overnight success stories.
There's just years and years and hours of hard work
put in into the craft, and then one day,
people just say, oh you've made it.
But you never feel it yourself.
So learn, make, repeat.
Just keep doing that, and you keep closing that gap,
and you keep getting better and better.
Then you're better the next year
than you were last year,
and you keep getting better and better.
And you keep getting closer to peaking.
But aim to peak at 50, instead of 20 or 30,
so you don't have that pressure.
Instead of putting so much pressure on yourself,
why don't you try to do something good with your
time and effort instead of just trying
to squeeze that success out of nothing, basically.
I just read a really interesting
book called Hatching Twitter.
It's probably one of my favorite books, actually.
And one of the things that really
stuck out to me in that book was just
the things they would do to accomplish that success.
They would just do all these things
that I bet you they would've never thought
they would've done before.
They worked 24 seven on these projects.
They would betray their friends.
They would oust them from the company,
kick them off and not give them any credit.
And all this just weird stuff
that I bet you they would've never thought they would do.
But because they had that pressure to succeed,
they felt like that's what I need to do in this moment.
But I bet you, if they would've changed their mindset
that hey, we don't need to peak right now at 20 or 30,
we can peak at 50, they wouldn't have done all those things.
They would've been a lot slower to betray their friends
and do all those things.
Stop stressing.
You do not have to be the best in your area
by the time you're 20 or 30.
That's really unlikely,
and don't put that pressure on yourself.
Because it'll actually slow you down the whole way.
It'll just be this big weight
that you have to drag along.
There's more than enough success
to go around for everybody.
It's not a competition.
Learn to be content with what you have,
and where you are in your career.
Just learn to enjoy that process.
Because the journey is the most important thing.
Work hard, but enjoy life at the same time.
Don't think that work is everything
and your career is everything in life.
So for all you aspiring film-makers,
learn to enjoy that journey.
Enjoy the journey, because that's really the best part.
And one of the best ways to do that
is to just free yourself from that pressure
of you have to be the best.
Especially at such a young age.
Then that crippling fear of not making it
will start fading away,
and you'll start having that freedom to just
do what you need to do and just make it happen.
Try new stuff, try anything,
and learn while you're doing it.
No pressure, just try things out,
because that pressure can be a crippling thing
that stops your whole creative flow,
and just slows you down so much
in your creative career.
So guys, aim to peak at 50.
Free yourself from that pressure.
Guys, I hope you learn something from this video.
Enjoy the film-making process,
and go get some of those travel feels.
(music continues)
♫ Turn my opinion around
♫ I'll try to understand what all the fuss about
♫ I'll think for myself and build my love around
♫ All the lovers paint a pretty little
♫ Picture inside my head, yeah
♫ While all the other ones pick
♫ A little image out for themselves, yeah
♫ Oh, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa