If you want to be a creative there’s only one thing to do – create. Make stuff every day. Someone once told us, “There is no right or wrong – only make.” This week Stan does what he does best, reminding us why we’re here and what to do.

So you wanna be a creative do you?
OK then. Tell me what you’ve created this week?
“Well….It’s a bit hard at the moment. Um….I work in a café a couple of afternoons a week, so it’s hard to find the time.”
That, my young friends, is a snippet of a conversation I had this week with a wannabe copywriter who came to show me her folio.
She had a pretty good book to be honest. But It hadn’t really changed since the last time she’d come to see me three months ago.
Which is, to be totally blunt, not bloody good enough.
If you want to be a creative, you must create. Not now and again. Not just on the weekend. You must create whenever and however you can.
You should be constantly adding to your folio. If it stagnates, so too will your chances of getting a job.
So if you’d rather come up with excuses than great ideas, do yourself (and me) a favour and go get a job in an accounting firm.

That’s right folks. It’s days like today that mean we as Australians get the chance to live a pleasurable life. (And if you’re not an Australian, listen up. This goes for you too.) So why not use this opportunity to reflect on the Americans – Our crazy over zealous brethren from the North. Because although they may be crazy and over zealous, they are also very good at raising the bar. Especially on a day of national importance like today. So instead of downing a few stubbies in the backyard, read this post by Stan and reflect on what you might be able to achieve this year.

“It’s never crowded along the extra mile” wrote positive thinking pioneer Wayne Dyer many years ago.

He’s right too.

But if you’re happy to settle for mediocrity, that’s fine by me.

And if you’re the sort of person who thinks that you don’t need to have amazing ideas to succeed in the creative industries, that fine by me too.

I couldn’t care less in fact.

For those of you who are interested in the journey along the extra mile, I’ll leave you with this excerpt from the inauguration speech of Barack Obama. A man who is more than familiar with that sparsely populated stretch of road.

“Our journey has never been one of shortcuts or settling for less. It has not been the path for the fainthearted – for those who prefer leisure over work, or seek only the pleasures of riches and fame.

Rather, it has been the risk-takers, the doers, the makers of things – some celebrated, but more often men and women obscure in their labor — who have carried us up the long, rugged path toward prosperity and freedom.”