May 29, 2006
remain frugal
[More thoughts on “How To Be Creative”.]
31. Remain Frugal.
The less you can live on, the more chance your idea will succeed. This is true even after you’ve “made it”.
In 1997, I landed the dream job. High-paid advertising copywriter. Big office. Big apartment in New York. Glamorous parties and glamorous backdrop. All feeding the urban sophisticate narrative etc. All good.
The trouble was, even though I was being paid very well, I was still broke by the end of the month. Life in New York is a costly business, and I was determined to experience it fully. I sure as hell wasn’t saving anything.
Like they say, education is expensive. And I ended up paying top dollar.
Because of course, one day the recession hit, the job dried up and I nearly found myself on the street. Had I lived a bit more modestly I would have been able to weather the storm better.
There are a lot of people out there who, like me back in New York, make a lot of money, but spend it just as quickly. The older you get, the less you envy them. Sure, they get to go to the fancy restaurants five days a week, but they pay heavily for the privelege. They can’t afford to tell their bosses to go take a hike. They can’t afford to not panic, when business slows down for a month or two. The have to keep tapdancing, whether they like it or not.
Part of being creative is learning how to protect your freedom. That includes freedom from avarice.
“Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, having us working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don’t need.” — Tyler Durden.
Very sharp, Hugh. I’ve got to the age where I realise I have a finite number of heartbeats left to me, so the less time I have to waste dealing with cruft, the better my life is. As you say, being frugal helps “afford” the freedom to tell people who waste your time to bugger off.
I learned this one a couple years back but I was lucky enough to not have to learn it the hard way. I didn’t have my job taken from me. I came to the conclusion through a series of life changing events at the time that I needed to be smarter about how I lived my life. I no longer feel the burning sensation of a hole in my wallet.
I couldn’t agree more with you. I did that same thing only, I was an art director and lived in London, not NYC. Apart from that, little in the way of difference.
you are so right and i am so trying to be frugal and run a business.
the hughtrain came through blowing rock nc the other night at a meeting of the blue ridge entrepreneural council. we had a speaker from greensboro (town about 1.5 hours down the mtn) give a talk and he quoted your “the market for something…”
i felt so ahead of the game since i already knew it and had already read this stuff and even received some great advice about my teenage rock and roll son and his artistic/academic endeavors from your site in the past so i was thinking.…so how cool am i? (anyway i digress.…..)
he did’nt say your url though and i bet it is because some of your comments use the f word. a lot of people here don’t curse at all. or even if they do they still act offended about it..(go figure…)
anyway…like i said, i already knew about this and your philosophies, and they tie in to why i was at the meeting anyway…
i stumbled into the gaping void while working as a designer (mostly print…some web) at this boring company ran by assholes. as i began to think up something i could do in this little town where i live— i came up with the idea of becoming a chocolatier. we have mostly a tourism industry and i thought people out having fun and hiking might like to have a bit of fine chocolate. which was missing from here anyway in the way that i make it. (fresh, by hand, from pure chocolate)
the saving money thing espec. important for me because its seasonal here and our main earning time starts now though fall with a little up at christmas and valentines day for me.
so i guess i better get to my chocolate workshop and get busy…but i just had to let you know you are reaching the folks in the nc mountains! yee haw!
Living sensibily, you’re right, is a mature creative mission. There is satisfaction in arranging your life based on what you need, and not what you think you want, in defining your identity by your identity rather than a brand. I have a ’91 truck that won’t die. Had I known it would run so long, I might have taken better care of it. The thing is rusting from the inside out, thanks to my drooly dog. But I love my modest wheels. Cheap to operate, cheap to register, and it gets good mileage since it was built before trucks became luxury vehicles. I call it “the truck that don’t care.” If I’m jousting with a jackass in a beamer, he’s the one with something to lose. Someone’s gonna merge, and someone’s gonna yield. And yielding is optional in the truck that don’t care. And that’s my most longwinded nod of agreement today.
“remain frugal”
there is a corollary to this. the old saw was “time is money.” nope. wrong. time is not money.
*** money is time. ***
keeping the powder dry, and keeping a few ducats in the bank gives one the time needed to let things grow.
“If you happen to be one of the fretful minority who can do creative work, never force an idea; you
thanks. as a young, mild mannered and more mildly payed cw in nyc i appreciated your comments. i will do my best.
You’re right with the statement of “the less you can live on your idea, the more it will succeed.
One week ago, I stood with two other people in a provincial town in South Germany. We had missed the Bus that should have taken us to our train. Now, there were 20 kilometers in oneahalf hours to make with full luggage. Impossible. We choosed to hitch-hike. The two other people are a girl, who is quite small and a half indian friend of mine. He considered himself to look like a Pakistani terrorist, so he, being quite shy about hitch-hiking stepped back while we were holding out our thumbs. I had written a panel with “Ravensburg” on it. But nobody stopped for half an our. So, I walked up to him and asked him, if he knew, what a braveheart-bonus was. As he said no, I gave him the Ravensburg-panel and told him that sometimes the most unlogic things work the best, if you believe in it. Five minutes later, we wer catched up by a Russian German. Thank God.
sounds like how I live and do stuff now. Infinitely happier than when I made 20X as much …
Tobi, what is a braveheart bonus?
Alan
Glad to see someone else thinking along the same lines but from a very diferrent part of the world, occupation and experience. This is one of those gut feelings you have but is often suppressed by the mass pounding from the media constantly telling you the opposite.
Dave MacLeod (a broke but happy ‘pro’ climber in Glasgow)
It comes down to focussing on your mission and the priorities that stem from it. It’s important to let go of caring what other people think or it becomes a choke hold, an abstract sort of editor that judges you. Trust yourself. Also, it’s not what you make, but what you keep…so invest in things that last and question what you buy and why…Saying “no” teaches you what you really care about it…On the other hand, I’ve been striving for sometime now. My priority was to build a career but to put my children’s welfare first. This slowed down my career. But the investment of time, the most valuable thing and also “free,” in my children’s lives was worth it. I’m grateful I could give it to them. Now they are growing up secure and happy — a hard thing for a single parent. I am their rock, and they are mine. One more thought, though: Remember to give something to yourself — the things you need to sustain yourself, however you define it. This will keep you strong at times when there is no one there for you, but you.
Thanx for your admittments. A braveheart-bonus is… You should watch the film. Or the film “Joanna of Orleans”. But it can be described with “The less you can live on, the more chance your idea will succeed”
This is very interesting site code of canon law paradisus punta cana free rape stories tracfone ringtone mp3 ringtone maker prince ringtones asian rape animal fuck free cingular ringtone virgin mobile ringtones ohio state ringtones rape pictures canon cartridge i850 ink shakira ringtones motorola ringtones free ctu ringtone virgin rape free polyphonic ringtone free virgin mobile ringtones i9900 canon ink cartridge mp3 to ringtone free virgin mobile ringtones forced sex polyphonic ringtone canon i560 canon business solutions canon in d piano sheet music free ringtones for t-mobile canon theatre toronto boy rape real ringtones canon zr600 ringtones for verizon free tracfone ringtones horse sex women canon fax lc5000 printer cartridge free ringtones verizon canon ef lens free mobile ringtones canon rebel body digital camera