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Insight

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Sep 30, 2010
by Calvin Correli
1 min read
I just realized that I don't care about entrepreneurship. I always thought that entrepreneurship, starting businesses, were what I cared about.

But there's a lot of entrepreneurship that just leaves me cold inside. Doesn't excite me, doesn't engage me.

What I care about is self-expression. I care about seeing people be themselves out there. In business as well as in non-business. Seeing people express their art.

I love it when I can feel that there's someone "there".

Thankfully, there are so many examples of that. One in particular that comes to mind is Adam Lisagor aka Lonely Sandwich.

But there are even more examples of the opposite.
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About Calvin Correli

I've spent the last 17 years learning, growing, healing, and discovering who I truly am, so that I'm now living every day aligned with my life's purpose.

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4 comments

David Aaron Fendley
 

I have been struggling with entrepreneurship and self expression lately. It has always been my drive, goal, my motivation, to express myself creatively in all avenues. However, it has become difficult to do so while remaining profitable. It is not that the two are mutually exclusive; it is that in order to have the funds to grow my company the way I wish to, and in order to develop the resources required to enable the projects I wish to execute, I am starting to feel like I need to do things I don't want to in order to acquire these funds. On one hand I feel like I am "selling out". On the other, that I am doing what is necessary for the greater good. Where is the fine line? When is it okay to supress my idealism for moments of realism?
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Lars Pind
 

@David: I really don't know. I think there probably is a way to express yourself without having to sacrifice. It may not always be the most pleasant road. But it may just be the shortest, most effective road, in the end. I don't know. What I do know is that as of late, all the projects I've tried to do that were of that nature - generate cash so I could focus on my "art" - have failed, and ended up wasting lots of time and resources. Go figure! :) //Lars
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Lars Pind
 

Oh, and one more thing: You're so not alone in that struggle. I think everyone who tries to express their art in some shape or form struggles with this.
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David Aaron Fendley
 

Lars, I appreciate your response. As an update, I've been able to direct clients towards services of mine in which I can provide quality, artistic expression. When a client asked if they could provide me bulk work so that I could significantly lower my cost, I explained to them that my attitude is that of Disney (or Pixar): my work is expensive because of the quality and experience I can provide. To behave like a generic design firm forces me to lower my quality to make a buck. I may make a lot of bucks doing so, but I have now diluted my name, my company's name, and my self worth. It is unfulfilling. I do still encounter situations where I am constrained by a client's time or budget, and thus become concerned that I won't be able to provide the level of quality I wish to. But I've chosen to see these situations not as demands to "sell out" the quality of my team and I's work, but to instead see these as positive constraints. In this we learn to become more efficient workers and better communicators, with leaner, better workflows that allow us to "trim the fat," saving time while still being able to provide the quality expression we seek to provide.
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