It doesn’t matter what you did before
I think people fear reinvention. We prefer the devil we know even if parts of that preference mean we might be less happy or less able to realise our most prized ambitions. Reinvention requires work, insecurity, all the uncomfortable sensations and thoughts you experience when you have to start all over again.
And yet it’s one of the greatest keys to success. Look at the careers of obvious serial reinventors, such as Bowie, Jagger or Madonna. But then look at the people who were seen in one pigeonhole and then broke out of it to become even more brilliant in another one.
There’s Peter Jackson, whose early films looked like this:
Or The Evil Dead’s Sam Raimi, who went on to direct slightly more mainstream fare such as this:
What about Steve Jobs? From tech whiz to movie mogul. Alan Sugar? Businessman to football chairman to TV star. Justin Timberlake? Boyband twat to credible musician and actor. Robin Williams? Mork to Oscar-winner etc.
It’s entirely understandable that making the decision to reinvent puts the willies up some people, but when you consider how well it can work out and how exciting it can be, the upsides can often outweigh the downs. High-flying women who want to be mums, then businesswomen etc; creatives who go into management; people who leave the rat race to sell organic cheese… You don’t have to put on a conical bra and have sex with Vanilla Ice. You can just go off in a different direction and see if you like it.
A while ago I did a career course with an ex-CD called Patrick Collister. He showed us a graph that explained how the most successful people actually leave their jobs when they are at their peak then go on to find another. I suppose that’s because it puts you in the strongest position for a move (as opposed to waiting till you’ve spent a few years on the down slope), but I think it’s also because you feel in control of your life. If you wait until you’ve failed then you’ll feel as if circumstances have forced you into being someone you don’t want to be. If you make the decision then you empower yourself.
So whatever you’re doing now, there are many other options, including every other way of spending your time in the universe (not including certain athletic pursuits that may have been rendered impossibly by your age or the way you have hitherto treated your body).
I was a syphilitic prostitute before working in advertising. It hasn’t done me any harm.
Wasn’t Jackson’s first film Bad Taste?
Patrick Collister is a rather timely example, as he’s just winding up his creative training business to become Head Of Design at Google (as I’m sure you know). He gave a seminar at my advertising college and he was utterly brilliant.
As for me, I may have sold my amplifier, but in my head, I still haven’t quite given up my arena rock dream. Or I might write a play. Someday.
Bill Bernbach’s resignation letter yesterday, then this today.
Got any news for us Ben?
Peter Jackson did Bad Taste before Meet The Feebles – Equally low-budget but still fantastic.
George Harrison said something people telling him that he’d changed, and wasn’t the same person he used to be. He agreed. But asked if that wasn’t the whole point of life, to change and keep changing.
something ‘about’. Sorry. Typo
One of the biggest threats to changing/evolving is other people’s attitudes – if you haven’t done it before, you can’t do it. It’s easier to put people in pigeonholes (eg if you’re a great photographer of cars, you can’t possibly snap people; if you write crime novels you can’t ever write the Great British Novel) because you know what you’re dealing with and don’t have to think outside the box (or pigeon hole). Re-invention is great and mind-expanding and we ought to be doing more of it. After all, we only get one life.
Indeed: Bad Taste did precede MTF. Thanks.
And no, there’s nothing significant to be read into the last two posts.
7 years ago I got made redundant.In other words I didn’t reinvent myself, I was reinventified.If I hadn’t been I would never have reinvented myself. My reinventification turned out to be ace. I went freelance, travelled the world and had time off to ponce about every now and then. So good.
But equally it could all have gone tits up.
I had no part in it. It all just happened to me.
Love this Ben! can we please discuss tomorrow? i shall bleed you dry of your knowledge, whilst buying you arancini and crocchette…..
Of course x
Solid. Like this post.
This industry is incredibly bad at boxing people in. I think some of the least progressively mind people I have ever met work in creative departments.