From the Inspirational Thought Unit
Had a long chat last week with a peer about whether or not he should start a youtube channel for his art. We looked at all the angles to see if this was something he should pursue or not. I kept coming back to asking him what he actually wants to spend his days doing. In thinking some more about it, I recalled this quote:
"Don't think about what you want to be, but what you want to do."
― Richard P. Feynman
Austin Kleon puts it this way, "if you want to be the noun, first do the verb." Think about what you want to do, and let the labels and career come out of that.
Looking at it backwards though: what you do ends up defining you.
Granted, this day and age, every indie professional is required to wear ALL the hats: marketing, accounting, admin, customer service, etc. So the move to start a YouTube channel to increase awareness of one's work makes sense. The concern is that one can get so lost in the weeds of doing everything, that they end up being nothing.
It's important that no matter what extra things you take on, they don't interfere with the thing you really want to be doing. And by doing, I'm really talking about the things you create.
In June 2027, when I look back at what I've created in the last 5 years I don't want it to just be a pile of "content" posted online to help make the social media companies richer. I'd like to look at a stack of books, point at them, and say to myself, "I made THAT."
What do you want to have created by June 2027?
-Jake