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[The War on Creativity] Solution: Which Starving Artist Are You?
“The grass is always greener on the other side — until you get there and see it’s AstroTurf. Symbols are never reality. Someone might have amassed material success and fame, but that doesn’t mean they’re happy.”
—Karen Salmansohn
I spent my last two years of college at Syracuse University, where I paid $30k to study creative advertising (aka learn how to become Don Draper). I was broke and slightly jaded, but hey…at least my future was bright.
When I got hired that summer by an ad agency right outside of NYC, I thought, “This is IT. I’ve got the perfect job, in the perfect location, for more money than I’ve ever made in my life ($40k).”
A year later I was miserable again and quit my job to start a web design business. Like college and the 9–5 world, freelancing was a utopia at first, but after a few months the constant grinding and lack of security felt as unsustainable as being an agency drone.
Defeated, I thought…
Maybe there is no promised land. Maybe life is just shit and no one bothered to tell me.
