This is an excerpt that I created in an effort to help someone who needed to hear something way back when I was rediscovering myself. Things were forming that eventually solidified into what is now Brightlive-
August 13, 2006
Trying to help my friend with his dilemma.
You’re an artist who finds yourself wanting great things while building someone else’s dream. If you are just doing what is in front of you, then you are not doing what you need to do. You need to build your own house.
Being a guest, visitor, or worker in someone else’s home poses many obstacles and limitations. You feel the need to do great things like add a utility room or build a second floor, or paint the couch red. If the homeowner likes your idea, then you’ve done fine. You’ve realized your potential for their home. Hopefully, another homeowner will want you to express your genius for them as well, and so on, and so forth. But at the end of a life, what do you have to show for it, but a bunch of happy homeowners who now possess the fruits of your labor. Yes, that is gratifying in and of itself to some degree, but if you have no home of your own, there is no legacy that your genius leaves. There is no home for you to fill with love and genius; there is no house for your family to sleep in at night. With that being said, chances are the homeowner doesn’t even need a utility room, or can’t afford to add a story. If you are going to have any impact at all, you need to stick to things like, “let’s fix the door knobs,” or “Do you mind if I clean the windows?”
If you spend any more energy than that, you are wasting time and resources that could be put into your own house. The only limitations to building your own house would be relegated to whatever you are not willing to sacrifice. There is no right or wrong if you are listening to the true voice. There are just decisions that bring about consequences. Can you live with those consequences? What are the benefits vs. costs in trying to attain greatness? How many resources are available to you right now? Could you obtain more in time?
Let’s talk about your resources. Your greatest resource is time and energy. With those, you and your talent can have a hay day. But, we have a limited amount of time on this earth. If you are living and working in someone else’s house, don’t use it up with trying to force your greatness upon these walls that you do not own. Don’t fall prey to the myth that if you disengage, acquiesce, or distance yourself from the big picture, then there will be people who suffer because of your lack of interest; there are guests of this house who will not benefit from your great work; you didn’t fight the good fight. Well, there is no good fight in this particular house. It’s not yours.
Do what you are there to do. Once you find out the truth of what your job really is, then you can put 100% into that which you control. If you have great ideas, but don’t speak up because the boss doesn’t see you as an equal contributor, then you’re ahead of the game; you didn’t waste your breath. If your suggestions are genius, however, and the homeowner does not agree with you, the truth will eventually float to the top with time. Let time be your ally. Even if your genius idea is never realized, then think about putting that idea into you’re your own home. Whatever idea ends up sticking, it will either be that the homeowner will live with the consequence, you will hear about it and have the opportunity to improve it (there’s nothing to lose, it wasn’t’ your idea anyway), or you will never hear about it because it has satisfied the boss. In the meantime, cash the checks.
I know this sounds like apathy. It sounds like I’m telling you to shut up and do your job. This is correct and is the opposite of what the artist in you wants to hear. Well, apathy hasn’t entered the picture yet. All we have here is truth: you know what to do, you can do it, it doesn’t waste resources, you get paid, you and your family are taken care of, and the boss is happy. Apathy is more a reaction to truth. It sets in when you can’t draw the line between caring for another’s home and caring for your own home. If you were to allow this scenario to make you feel worthless, keep you from being optimistic about your own life, then, and only then, will you have become apathetic by disengaging. This is not what I am suggesting. I am saying make a distinction between investing in your own house, and investing is someone else’s house.
The optimist takes this scenario as a blessing. You’ve revealed the truth about how much input you are allowed to have in a given situation. That doesn’t reflect on you as a person or an artist, it reflects on how different your ideas are from someone else’s ideas. News flash: Everyone has different ideas. Now that you know this, you don’t have to waste your breath trying to convince someone else how to decorate because that’s what you feel is affective or beautiful, because it will be even more effective in your own house. Save the energy and invest it into your own home. Build your own house. Leave a legacy.
