I have been thinking a lot about how I relate to my Lighting Design work recently. I am talking not about the aesthetics of the work, but rather the business model I operate under. When I was in graduate school I took out a (relatively) small loan to supplement my scholarship. I did this as a means of using money to leverage my opportunities by making it possible to purchase the most up to date drafting technologies, seeing the latest plays, operas, dances and so forth. My education was greatly enriched by that opportunity I gave to myself.
Over time however, that leverage became a burden. Despite the fact that I kept diligently paying off the loans, my attitude towards them shifted over time. The benefits I had garnered from the money were still present in my work and experience, yet I saw the loans as a drag on my earning. Without the immediacy of the experience, the focus shifted to the debt incurred in that action. My mentality towards work, again speaking strictly at a business level, went from generating income to paying off debt. While paying off debts is a good thing, I found that having that be the focus of earning money limits potential.
When I relocated to the Bay Area over six months ago I reached out to all the designers and directors I knew to get a sense of the landscape. One designer in particular stood out. This person told me, in no uncertain terms that there was quite simply not enough work to go around. The subtext being, why don’t you go back where you came from and leave the scraps to the rest of us. His response bordered on outrage and was quite surprising. Because this was one of my first encounters with a designer out here, his perspective colored my vision and everywhere I looked I kept seeing that scarcity.
In fact, the scarcity mentality that this designer was operating under was very likely the cause of his not finding enough work to be satisfied. The scarcity mentality is very closely related to that same idea of working to pay off debt rather than working to build wealth. Not too long ago I came to the realization that this way of going about the world was not only unproductive, it was counter productive. By focusing on paying off debt and looking out with a scarcity mentality I was unconsciously limiting my potential market.
What I have found myself doing lately is shifting my perspective from a debt oriented view to a wealth oriented view. In short, a shift from a scarcity mentality to an abundance mentality. The economy may be way down, we know this, but people are still hiring. Companies are still producing and lights still need to be designed.
Greed is the logical outcome of the scarcity mentality. Or perhaps the scarcity mentality is a product of greed. It is a hoarding tendency born from the fear of not enough. Many people want to earn high incomes not because of a desire for a better life per se, but out of a fear of not having enough. This may seem like the same thing, yet in fact they are diametrically opposed points of view. Those who want to earn high incomes out of fear, tend to be laden with debt, broke at the end of the month, and constantly worried about how they will pay their bills, regardless of their income level. Those who embrace an abundance mentality tend to have more than enough for themselves to live the life they want.
What I am interested in and what I am speaking to here is expanding the pie. I am no longer interested in seeking out scarcity and eeking out an existence to pay off debt. Rather I am interested in generating value and wealth to raise the quality of life for the people around me. Be that through creating beauty, donating to charity or taking a friend out to dinner. The scarcity mentality has for too long held me and my loved ones back. From experience I know that embracing an abundance mindset is the first step towards generating true wealth. The days of scarcity are over.
Standing in the knowledge that there is enough work has in the past, and I am confident will in the future, create that reality. Our world is shaped by our perceptions and only through a fundamental structuring of our outlook towards abundance, comfort and peace of mind can we truly create those things for us and our loved ones in our lives.
Tags: business, money, practical theory, work
Lucas – I love this. Just wanted to throw that out there.
Expanding the pie is doable. The tricky thing about it is that when you’re talking about expanding the theatrical pie, you have to expand it all – starting from the audience, but then everywhere – all your collaborators, your bosses, the media – they all have to be aligned together and the more you align the more the pie expands.
Talking more about what you do in your work to local people who are interested in you is the start. As you start from that place, you’ll find places where your lighting design skills overlap with the needs of others – the obvious ideas being architecture and interior design, but also just: Looking at and shaping the light in people’s lives. As a computer programmer used to the most persnickety of hardware – the light board – you also have an opportunity to help people with an impatience for technology to learn to use it holistically in their lives.
I’ve been working on a similar mind-shift along with a group of theater artists in Chicago right now – I think as long as I’ve been blogging, but it’s starting to pay dividends now. I think we’re changing a lot of things, all at once (at least three companies, and about four individuals who are all leaving day jobs and following creative work – in this economy. To be honest? We’re going to not only be happier but we’ll be making more money this way.) It works because we’re doing it together, and we’re taking the whole landscape of creative work in and responding creatively to that establishment scarcity mentality when we encounter it: http://nikku.net/blog/maintenance/
In the words of Rahm Emanuel: “Never waste a good crisis.”
It is the mindset change that sets all of this in motion. I’m thrilled to see what you come up with, and I hope you find a group of like-minded folk who can keep you at it.
Thanks for the well wishes on the paradigm shift. It sure is a powerful way to look at the world. I have seen it work in the past. This is a bit of a revisiting for me as much as it is a new adventure.