Im Trying To Make It Look Simple

A couple of months in, it has been an overwhelming life stage change for me. As we know, a person’s expectations are forever changing because of new situations we find ourselves in, and promises being made to us. I recently finished my media studies course majoring in strategic advertising and was blessed to find placement soon after. The experience has come like no other. I find myself in an environment that is very pleasing to the unknowing, but like everything else, there’s much more than meets the eye. A place where you have to adapt to being on level ground, never mind climbing from bottom up, you quickly come to the understanding that there is a very complex hierarchy at force here. From who says how high, and who does the actual jumping, I’ve literally been thrown in the deep end.

To be honest, time moves very quickly in a sticky and smudged kind of way. It’s all about the little corporate nuances, where you have to rely on your snap judgment and hindsight to pick up. There’s apparently no room for mistakes in the industry I’m in, but I wrap myself in the warmth of the fact that it’s all about learning for now. I try to quickly and efficiently  grasp working tendencies as smoothly as possible, leveraging my creative and productivity levels but still blinded by the fact that it’s possible to make an error here and there. You see, in fact, it’s only about the learning; I find myself at a point where I’ve thrown whatever it is I interpret as my comfort zone away and now dwell in the ocean of challenge.

I have a vision that keeps my blood boiling. That same vision is what keeps my eye on the ball. My mentor once told me that I have to be patient and that success doesn’t come over night. He sees my ambition and my willingness to succeed, but I could understand where he is coming from. In everything we do, and things we are passionate about, there is a thin line that creeps up to haunt us between being ambitious and being over-enthusiastic. Being over-enthusiastic destroys many intelligent but naive students that enter the real working environment, where you see them trying to be and do everything at once. Us the beginners, have to set our goals relative to our ambitions so we don’t hurry the process and avoid getting lost in the abyss that is “lack of enthusiasm”, just because it’s not happening the way we’ve been planning it in our heads throughout varsity. Like I said expectations are forever changing, the quicker we learn to adapt the better. By so doing, that will eliminate plenty of disappointment.

A couple of months in, all I’m trying to do is sync my drum-roll, the more precise my beat – the more pleasant my experience will be in this new concert I'm living.   www.twitter.com/tumimokgethi

Us, the beginners.

"  NOBODY tells this to people who are beginners. I wish someone had told me. All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple of years you make stuff , thats just not that good. Its trying to be good, it has potential, but its not good. But your taste, that thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work dissapoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase; they quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesnt have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you got to know thats its normal and most important thing you can do is do alot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you finish one piece. Its only by going through a volume of work that you will close the gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than ayone I've ever met. Its going to take a while. Its normal to take a while. You just got to fight your way through.   "

- Ira Glass

What Would I Like to Be Famous for?

This question is particularly ironic because I have a close group of friends that want to be famous for all types of reasons and causes, but I don’t share the same sentiments. I honestly don’t want to be famous or celebrated on a large scale because I frankly believe it’s overrated. Jim Carey once said that everyone should have all the money, fame and fortune the world has to offer so they can see that it’s not the way. If we consider the fact that everyone has that inner yearning, that small flame burning, sparking, screaming for glory, then in that case my fame shouldn’t be short-lived. I’d rather have a legacy, something that will inspire those that follow, the people who want genuine change, in its true form. Of course I can’t better the world, but better that small change than nothing. OK, enough with the cliche, and philosophical blah blah. If I had to be famous, I want a statue in my name with a caption that reads, “The man who put the 1^st Billboard that floats on the moon.” Having a statue might be too ambitious, but the campaign and initiative will defiantly be worthy.