Work is a play that plays only once.
I almost had a full career in production and entertainment. I helped to execute a lot of events in various roles from project management, set and lighting design. What work means and what life means could be interpreted as a delicate dance on a stage you only get to act on once.
At the time I thought, wow! My fine art knowledge and talents are being utilized and I am being paid for it. I made good money, from a value perspective my rewards exceeded my efforts. The production world is an exciting one, and the more embedded you become you learn that sometimes you’re not always going to be doing what you’re good at.
I have sat at a desk and helped contestants sign up for a show, but the client budget was large and me sitting on a chair for three days did not take that much effort. I was also quite young, I was an understudy of many things…or apprentice would be the right word. I was a paid intern in some aspects and in others I was the expert needed.
I think back to the work ethics I learned doing various jobs in summer as a teenager, I worked in a post office, I understood how mail works, I packed bags by the cashier and stocked shelves in a supermarket on several summers, I enjoyed the tip$ a lot. I was a skinny lad, but somehow I ended up working with my uncle’s construction company one summer…I lifted bricks, got into cement, there was no mercy.
I was not always happy with every job, but my parents, and I must say, my mother in particular did not let me ever believe for a second that money came by easy.
I grew up in a house where chores were done before play, I developed a strategy to get more play…I would wake up at 5 am or 6 am depending on when sunrise would arrive, and I got going. This gave me more time to play. I eventually started to understand value, I would ask my father to let me wash the car, cut the lawn, and do other things someone else would do or he would do. I got money or I learned to drive, a win-win.
Years later, post-college, I am working in production, enjoy a lot of travel and benefits. The larger the budget the better the hotel, meals were in the budget and so were the hotels. I met a master of lighting, a light technician whom the production company wanted me to shadow. I cannot remember his name now, but he traveled the world and he is really good at what he does.
He told me of his struggles and his journey, and what spoils he now enjoys. I said I want that life, I loved being in production and I loved learning about lighting, which started with learning photography prior.
We never know where our journey will go, we just have to start. How I developed a passion for brands and design is a journey of many things, trials, discoveries, disappointments. But you always see a path and you follow it, go against everything being told to you, ignoring what is considered good advice, and maybe it was. However, there is something much larger pulling you and you’re not quite sure what it is.
I somehow made my way into the printing industry, and then advertising and then brand became my primary professional focus.
What I do now allows me to work in a number of spaces including production. I did not see that coming. I understand life is a stage, and you have to work your ass off for the role of a lifetime, life is work and work is life. You must find ways to enjoy them, you must find harmony, peace with yourself and also define a vision of where you wish to be and who you wish to become.
Experience can mean many things, it’s not always in what you want to do, but with the right focus the things you experience can help you get to what you want to do. And most likely with a few extra skills and an ethic for work that many others won’t have.
I am not by far the most experienced, I am still on a journey to discovering more.
