Maybe it is the brain of the creative that makes metaphors so often. Here is a fresh one just from last night.
I recently started watching a very cool Netflix original documentary series called Abstract: the Art of Design. Definitely worth watching, if you are at all interested in what goes on in the minds and lives of the folks who create a lot of things we tend to not notice as having been created. That’s a whole other topic!
In the episode I watched last night, featured designer Tinker Hatfield (Nike shoes) talked about his pre-design career as an athlete in pole jumping – how, in that sport, you have to really mean it. There is no room for doubt.
I think it is true in design, definitely. But even more so, in business. I felt an interesting parallel to being an entrepreneur: there come these hurdles, and you have to consider whether or not you are up to it. Without getting too specific, let’s just say that the notion is very familiar to me. For example in bringing a new design to market, which might require the learning of a new technique, sourcing a new material, or purchasing a new piece of equipment. Or any kind of expansion at all, really.
You do your training/research, you do some tests, and then you have to just go for it. You put your whole effort and weight into it, with full conviction that your decision is the right one, and that you can make the mark. You push hard. You remain flexible. You remain elegant. But you push hard.
(screen shot from Netflix Original Series “Abstract: the Art of Design”)
Sometimes you make it, and sometimes you don’t. And then you do it again, maybe with a different project, maybe with the same.
I think it is this sense of lack of room for doubt which spoke to me and reminded me so much of what it is like to being an entrepreneur in the arts (so much so, I took these ‘screen shots’ – literally photos of my television screen). This periodic exertion and complete confidence to take the leap. I think maybe it comes from a mix of being a courageous and daring, and having a slight disregard for the ‘normal’.
Now what could be so bad about that.
