I was at the Mumford & Sons concert at Fiddler’s Green and loved seeing the lead guitarist and vocalist, Marcus Mumford, step away from the front of the stage and move to the drums.
He seemed to be having a blast on the drums and it reminded me of my podcasting. Yes, I have a “main job,” evangelizing for the Colorado Chamber of Commerce. Podcasting gives me a chance to exercise other talents in a synergistic and joyful way.
I was on the return trip of a TOP 5 of my life hike in Rocky Mountain National Park. As I looked out over the majestic view I wondered, “can I think about work now if I want to?” I know, kind of weird, but I wanted to see how I’d answer the question in the moment.
I considered a current challenge: a powerful CEO who had made a commitment to a deal and is now ghosting me. As I looked at the view you see here, I thought to myself, “that deal doesn’t matter very much now, it won’t matter at ALL in a few years, and it will have ZERO meaning to the world.” If I had been sitting at my desk, I’d have been stressing about it. Here, in this setting, my mind became free to choose to meet new people with whom I want to want to engage.
In contemplating my most recent podcast with Matt Hyder, Founder of Recoup Fitness, it occurred to me that he’s come such a LONG way. He graduated from high school with a 1.9 GPA and failed at four businesses. Now, still in his twenties, Matt has a company that will grow from $850K in sales in 2018 to over $6 Million in 2019. Matt’s focus remains on learning and getting better – good thing.
His early career – Fresh Prince of Bellaire. Later in his career, brilliant, poignant acting.
Now that I have experience and improved skills, I have to remind myself that people don’t start out at their best and sometimes not even close to their best. Even harder than that, is the painful truth that I still make mistakes that beg, “shouldn’t you be better than THAT” by now?”
Andy Warhol created the famous Marilyn Monroe montage below. It probably took him a while and I’m sure the original is worth millions.
I created this montage of my dog Ziggy in 20 minutes using a filter on my Pixel 2 phone and PowerPoint.
Has easy creativity “cheapened” creativity?
No, I don’t think technology is narrowing the gap between real talent and tech-stimulated creativity. Technology is enabling those of us not making a living as artists to be able to enjoy being creative without a steep learning curve. “Ziggy Warhol” was fun to make, and now fun to write about. I don’t think Andy Warhol, if alive, would feel threatened.
