creative careers are foolish

runnah

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Is the passion to create enough to justify the hardships?

In my case I spent most of my time fighting for respect, justifying my position, and convincing people with zero creativity that my idea and opinions are valid. I spend many night away from my family to create things for people who are ungrateful. All for the same pay as a retail manager.

Sometimes I wonder if accounting or plumbing would have yielded less stress and more money to enjoy creative hobbies.
 
Being a professional photographer made me hate photography for a while.
 
Being a professional photographer made me hate photography for a while.

Honestly picking up a camera was the worst thing I could have done for my career. Rather than learning other skills I learned a skill that actually pays less than I make now.
 
Perhaps a compromise career. I've heard that "creative accounting" pays extremely well.
 
I'm kicking myself over all those years spent honing my pole dancing skills...people tried to tell me, pole dancing was a career field more appropriate for hot, lithe, young females...but I was young, and I refused to listen...I was sure that some day, peoples' minds would change...
 
I'm kicking myself over all those years spent honing my pole dancing skills...people tried to tell me, pole dancing was a career field more appropriate for hot, lithe, young females...but I was young, and I refused to listen...I was sure that some day, peoples' minds would change...

I'd have an easier time convincing upper management to stick dollars bills in my g-string than to change a font in an ad.
 
I'm kicking myself over all those years spent honing my pole dancing skills...people tried to tell me, pole dancing was a career field more appropriate for hot, lithe, young females...but I was young, and I refused to listen...I was sure that some day, peoples' minds would change...
Huh... I didn't know they made schedule 80 brass poles. Live and learn.

;)
 
Is the passion to create enough to justify the hardships?
That is solely up to the individual; for some yes, for others no.

In my case I spent most of my time fighting for respect, justifying my position, and convincing people with zero creativity that my idea and opinions are valid. I spend many night away from my family to create things for people who are ungrateful. All for the same pay as a retail manager.
Then, for you, the answer to question #1 is clearly yes.

Sometimes I wonder if accounting or plumbing would have yielded less stress and more money to enjoy creative hobbies.
Absolutely!

Everyone is creative, but the depth of the desire to be creative is what differs from person to person. Most people with even a moderately severe creative vein at least imagine trying the starving artist routine. Newsflash: It is NOT all it's cracked up to be.
 
A full stomach and burgeoning bank account are not often conducive to the creative process.
 
Depends on how you measure the success of your creativity.
I solve problems so well that people pay me to solve the problems they cant solve themselves. This is essentially how I pay my bills. This is a fundamentally creative process but it has nothing to do with art.
My passion for creating art is separate from the method of paying bills. That puts me in a privileged position of enjoying art as a hobby and I would never choose to create art for a living because it would suck all the fun out of it.
 
A lot of people seem to measure success by how much money they make. But what about recognition from your peers, job satisfaction, general happiness and simply the reward of having made a great image?

I could be making loads of money by being an accountant or a lawyer or a manager of something if I'd paid attention at school. But I doubt very much I'd be as happy or would have met any of the wonderful people I've met since taking up photography as my job.

One day I hope to have my own studio and run my own business instead of being employed as a photographer in someone else's company like I am now, and maybe then I will be able to make more money, but I see the money as a nice by-product of doing what I love to do, not the objective.

If your goal is to make money then yes, a creative career is not necessarily foolish, but certainly a long and difficult way to go about it, but if your goal is job satisfaction and praise for your work, then I think the creative industries are the best and most rewarding jobs there are.
 
Is the passion to create enough to justify the hardships?

In my case I spent most of my time fighting for respect, justifying my position, and convincing people with zero creativity that my idea and opinions are valid. I spend many night away from my family to create things for people who are ungrateful. All for the same pay as a retail manager.

Sometimes I wonder if accounting or plumbing would have yielded less stress and more money to enjoy creative hobbies.
I've wondered the same thing many times.

I fought my way through architecture school for 5 years, only to not find a job doing that. Eventually I did, but what a crappy start. Then when I settled into what I thought was going to be my "lifetime" job, I had to continually argue my position, which was not at all fun. My ideas were routinely ignored as if I hadn't even made them known.

I've heard architects say they would do the work for nothing, as long as they could keep on designing.

I'm sorry this post is not more positive, but that is my answer: Yes, being creative is quite important to me, and although I am not making any money, I still enjoy the creative process.
 
In my case I spent most of my time fighting for respect, justifying my position, and convincing people with zero creativity that my idea and opinions are valid. I spend many night away from my family to create things for people who are ungrateful. All for the same pay as a retail manager.

Try being a UI designer and working with a sharepoint team.

But i refuse to work past 3pm. 7-3 and then im checked out. i never bring work home.
 

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