Creative Poverty is No Respecter of Persons

The “real” world can be brutal and what I mean by the real world is the realities of life that are thrust on you when you don’t have enough resources. I’ve come across the mindset in some creatives that the way I emphasize making money as a creative must be because I come from a poor background and never grew up with enough. To be honest I’ve had a rollercoaster life but on average have been comfortable. I know what it’s like to have and to go without so I think I can give a balanced view on this.

The scary thing about the creative field is that it is no respecter of persons. There are people that have come from wildly rich families and ended up as paupers due to lack of vision and business acumen when it comes to their art. There are also those that have come from nothing and built up their creative pursuits to be sustainable.

Money is not a necessary evil, it’s just a necessity and should be treated with as much respect as oxygen because without money for a long time just like oxygen you’ll die or feel like you’re suffocating for a very long time…

There’s a story I read of a men who spent all his inheritance money trying to promote his art and made $0 in sales. He cursed the magazine he spent the money on saying that they were a sham ( the magazine was read by the richest people in the world) and wanted to sue them.

Instead if he had acknowledged the importance of valuing money in your art and creativity he may have invested in learning about marketing and discovering what his niche would be.

As creatives we know ourselves better than anyone else. We love to blame our issues on everything but ourselves. We blame capitalism, societies, closed-minds for our poverty and lack of success and want to sound like having a drive for success is unartistic yet covet the ones within our communities who are making a big living. Let’s stop lying to ourselves. We know we’re killing ourselves and our industry by not making money. So let’s just make it this 2021?