TCE stands for The Creative Economy, a great book by John Hawkins. Inspired by his ‘10 rules for success in the creative economy’ I explore how this affects my daily life and work.
Invent yourself
Create a unique cluster of personal talents. Own your image. Manage it. Build momentum. Leave school early, if you want, but never stop learning. Break the rules. Be clear about your own assets and talents. They are unique. And they are all you have.
I consider myself a full time entrepreneur, working hard on starting my company and inventing myself. I’m also a student, working hard to get my bachelor in ‘Communication and Multimedia Design’. This means I’m in a continuous mode of self-exploration.
Luckily, there aren’t big contradictions in the combination of my study and company, which creates room to explore knowledge outside my company and study.
But who or what am I?
I’m a generalist. I know a little about a lot of subjects. Maybe you can call me a ‘Creative Generalist’. I love to explore information and trends, but I won’t digg in too far. Some people think being a generalist has a lot of downsides, but I believe it’s a great thing. However last year I really didn’t think about it this way.
Last year there were two ‘changing’ moments. Merging Firmhouse with Michiel’s company and switching my major study.
Within Firmhouse I’m responsible of planning projects and testing our ideas so we can launch them as new products and services. This creative process involves a lot of thinking and quick analysis. When concepting is done with ‘too much’ knowledge, it becomes a burden that keeps you from ‘freewheeling’.
My first major study was focused on business intelligence and informatics, a study teaching you to become a specialist in analyzing business processes and translating these experiences to system designs and blueprints. I didn’t like it because of the contents of the study, but more important I couldn’t focus on something I was already capable of doing on a basic level. I switched to a more creative study: Communication and Multimedia Design. It’s closer related to my tasks within Firmhouse and it focuses on trends.
These moments are important because it teached me more about being a generalist. I was told by experienced people that I needed to find my specialization in order to become a better at what I’m doing. I needed to find that ‘inner spark’ so I could develop better skills and add more value to the projects I worked on. After a lot of thinking about this, I can say I’m becoming a specialist in being a generalist… If I look at how fast I can go from idea to concept compared to one year ago, I’ve made tremendous progress.
What do I do to invent myself?
I try to be as diverse as possible. It enables me to put things in perspective and allows me to do a good job at Firmhouse. I read a diversity of books and blogs. The people I know are diverse, which allows me to learn from their experiences and knowledge. I use my blog and Twitter to re-share my experiences and knowledge so other people can learn from me.
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