Fast and Slow: You need to be both things simultaneously
On another of the many challenges of being an artist/entrepreneur today
By the time I was fifteen, I had determined I was a “man of action”. I found joy in making things happen and pleasure in getting things done. The last thing I wanted to do was sit around and wait.
I grew up in a small town with people who did not have much, but we had room to roam. I recognized that if someone didn’t say “let’s build a fort” or “follow me, I am biking across the river”, not much would happen. And I knew if I told everyone “Meet at the ball field at 9A” I would have something fun to do all morning.
At fifteen taking action became my primary philosophy. I wasn’t so much a leader as I was an instigator. Sure, novelty gets ingrained into our preferences pretty early on, but once I embraced making stuff happen as part of my responsibility, I grew aware of the need to vary it up. Fewer people showed at the ball field, if you had done that the last few days. You needed to build a rope swing over the gorge occasionally too — even if Phillip would break his arm in two spots when he fell.
Action certainly has its benefits. Society seems to primarily worship quantity. The more you get done, the more they appear to appreciate you. When you make shit happen, you don’t have to look as much for others to play with, as they start to come to you.
Quality becomes a pursuit for most of us only once we have secured the basics. Once we realize we might have enough is when we start to wonder whether we deserve better. At least that is how it has worked for me, and many that I have observed. We are so adaptable, we often grow accustomed to what is less than possible and seem willing to accept even broken things. It is hard to explain why we are willing to live in the gutter when we can reach the stars. In fact, once you are in something, many more seem to prefer to witness — and participate in — its demise, than to enact change of any sort.
This is what is happening within TheFKATheFilmBiz right now.
Not me though. That’s now how I behave.. My blood starts to boil.I want things to move towards that north star, to the things that release our better selves. Yes, there’s a lot we can get done by just taking action ourselves, but we also can’t help but see how things move faster when we work together. And get more enjoyable too. The downside of bearing such witness is we want more of that too. We wonder why we can’t work together more often? We wonder what’s holding us back? Is it the others? Or is it some how inherent in our being?
