Bad Advice (For Young Creatives)

Stay up late. Eat, drink, sleep design/writing/advertising. But don’t lose your soul. But don’t compromise. The money will come. You owe us. We owe you. Build a culture. Fuck corporate culture. Move to NY. Move to LA. Move to… Charleston? Embrace data. Embrace intuition. Put yourself out there. Hold back a little. Stalk your idols. Kill your darlings. It’s not that it’s this. It’s not this it’s that. It’s not anything, it’s nothing.

In case you haven’t been following along, the creative world is a bit contradictory.

This legendary ad guy will tell young creatives one thing, and by the end of the week, we’ve found a new set of musings to regurgitate.

“It’s not about collaboration. It’s about working together with empathy and respect… together.” Thanks, Saul Ass. You just described what collaboration should be.

It’s impressive, really. We’ve built this massive platform of commerce/influence in the creative industry just by offering up half-thoughts and contrarian meditations. We’ve monetized kindness. And the cyber-kudos keep a-rolling in.

Here’s the trick to the advanced levels of pseudo-advice and creati-drivel you see out there:

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1 / Identify some creative insecurity.
Client relationships, fear of public speaking, time management, finding and keeping a job, etc.

2 / Uno-reverse it.
Once conventional wisdom has drawn a line in the sand, tell that line it can get bent. With the power/privilege of a man whose parents paid their way through their first 5-or-so fuckups, tell people how wrong they are. Without care or consequences.
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There are all sorts of affirmative, but ultimately empty types of creative advice out there. From the particularly intoxicating do-it-on-your-own-terms to antiestablishment narratives and everything in between, there’s something for everyone. It’s all just sort of basic.

So what makes good advice?

It depends on what you’re looking for. There are a few answers that people seek in broad settings. Often, they seek validation of their beliefs or worries. But the good shit happens when they seek information.

Those who seek validation already have a hunch, or their minds made up. This represents the vast majority of the advice you see out there. “I did this and you can too!” “Clients aren’t the enemy, your agency process is!” No judgment here if this is what you’re seeking. We all need validation. We all desire to be agreed with. Or for someone to say the thing we know but don’t have the practice to put eloquently. This type of advice is most often sought in a public forum. It’s why we love tarot, horoscopes, personality tests, etc. On a broad level, they’ve all got pretty good points (Pisces, ENFP, Sunshine Yellow Energy over here).

Put simply, it feels good.

Information seekers go in knowing that they don’t know. The advice-givers are on equal footing from the beginning of the conversation and this is so important in the quest of making the acts of questioning and learning worthwhile. The seeker asks more broad and thought-provoking questions. The giver has to think. No canned, contrarian responses. There’s give, there is take, and there is an exchange of thoughtfulness and insecurity that breeds an actual relationship. Most often called a mentorship.

Put simply, it’s useful.

You as an information seeker have to decide between the two.

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All that being said, here’s the bad and potentially disappointing advice.

Most of the time, we don’t know what the fuck we’re talking about. Most of the time we’re just as confused and scared as you are. Most of the time we’re searching for very similar answers. Just as lost, if not a little more confident in our direction.

Unless you’re seeking it from a person who spent years earning a license to listen and advise—a therapist, a teacher. etc.—the advice-giver might not have the right answer for you. Maybe they’ll give you thoughts that work for them. But please be wary when someone speaks in vague platitudes: “Sounds like you should work as hard as I did.” “Have you read my book?” They’ve convinced themselves that somehow everyone’s journey should be the same as theirs.

Seek information from those who are motivated or inspired to share it with you.
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Closing thoughts that you can take or leave because as I said earlier I don’t know what I’m talking about:

1 / When you’re looking for guidance, seek information rather than validation. You’ll find the conversation much more valuable for both the seeker and the advisor. And you’ll be the one that made the decision for yourself.

2 / Beware of successful creatives who were never at risk of actual failure. Especially when they throw potentially irresponsible life advice at you. 85% of them had options in their lives, and they chose the one that seemed the most contrarian to their parents' wishes for them. There are folks who will take offense to this, but there’s a big difference between risking everything when you have nothing and risking everything when you have a safety net. Not saying these folks can’t give good advice, but just… beware.

3 / Sometimes empowering words are lip service. Most of the time, critical feedback is kindness. Don’t be afraid of more direct commentary, or even statements that sting. There are differences between being nice and being kind. Kindness is taking a moment to help people solve a problem, rather than just smiling and nodding.

4 / Take the opportunity to teach the person you’re seeking advice from. Please. As I said earlier, there’s a lot of shit we don’t know. Especially about what’s ahead of you in your career. Mentorship is mutual.

5 / Don’t rush your very long career. Embrace randomness. Be present. Be self-aware. Trust yourself. You know, “Do what I did…”

6 / I hope you see the irony of this entire post.