“Creative people have no idea where their skills come from. They operate under the constant, unexpressed fear that their talent might disappear at any moment.”
(252, The Little Blue Book of Advertisting)
The pressure, man, the pressure!
If we lose our ability to create, we lose our reputation, our clients, our careers. Our lives are incredibly fragile; our livelihoods built on chance. We need minor miracles every hour, on the hour, forever.
The demand to have something new, different, revolutionary, constantly, or else, keeps me up at night, makes me dread the morning. New, new, new, different, different, different, new new new, different different different! When I’m staring down a blank sheet for the twenty-fourth hour, for the seventh day, for the fourth week… is this it? am I finished? what if I never have another idea? It’s a battle we all know we’ll lose, we just don’t know when.
And we’re surrounded by the losers—everywhere, the burn-outs, the has-beens, the once-greats-now-nots or the never-haves. Those who make it to the top, and even more those that stay there: they’re not just hard-working, they’re not just talented, they’re BLESSED.
“After a short-lived moment of Momofuku Noodle Bar glory, Chang finds himself questioning the very things that have made his career so successful to date: his quirky vision and refusal to compromise. Saddled with a million-dollar loan and ever aware of his staff of top-notch cooks with visions of Momofuku-funded projects of their own in mind, Chang fluctuates almost hourly between doubt and confidence, optimism and regret. Should he bag the burritos and start dishing up noodles? Should he relocate to midtown, where he’s sure Ssäm Bar would thrive? Should he enter the Witness Relocation Program?”
(”The I Chang“, New York)
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