The Ember

Nov 5, 2024

Truth is, anyone can create, distribute and promote themselves today.

The barrier to entry for creative acts has been lowered, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

Many success stories that we would never previously have heard of have been given a voice, as the internet and progression of social media has made possibilities endless.

You don’t need the years of music training that might have once been required to become a renowned artist, nor do you need the background knowledge once needed to code an app.

Skills are easier to learn, and simpler to acquire.

With this, however, another problem is created;

Saturation.

Over 100,000 new songs are uploaded to the Internet every day, with nearly 4 million YouTube videos being uploaded daily.

Creativity is now just as much about being competitive as it is about being creative. There isn’t much room.

With this, creatives and anyone who puts their work out into the world are fighting a constant battle of trying to stand out from the crowd.

In doing this, many lose sight of their actual goal in the first place, chasing something seemingly as complex as reinventing the wheel, when all that they are searching for is right in front of them:

Authenticity.

When you create something, that creation isn’t inherently yours the same way your DNA is.

Your idea could have and probably has been thought of by someone else at some point in history, or will be in the future.

But it was you that joined the dots in that moment in time.

And creating is exactly that - joining dots.

The difference between your creation and someone else’s now goes down to your personality, taste and surrounding environment at the time, dictating how you choose to join the dots presented to you.

Therefore, despite the fact that you aren’t literally your creations, they are still a display of you; a projection of who you are in whatever form you choose whether it be a song, book or painting.

Mariah Carey’s approach to a particular song would be very different to Michael Jackson’s of the same song; in their vocal inflections, harmonic choice and many other minute details.

Trying to copy how they joined those dots is impossible because we are not them. We have not lived the same experiences as them, nor have the exact same musical background.

No matter how hard we try, copying that will not have the effect we’d be looking for, simply because they, as humans, already exist.

Things have value when you can’t get them anywhere else.

That’s why the first brand of a product onto the scene very often remains successful as no matter what happens after, and no matter what public opinion is on whether other iterations are better, at the time of release, that was the only place you could get that product.

The same goes for creativity.

Originality always wins.

It’s easy to say “Be Original”, but then we face another reality; The minefield that is every creation that already exists.

Imagine how hard it would be to have to solve a mathematical problem 100,000 different ways, every single day.

This is how difficult it is from the perspective of a creative that is asked to do something no one else has ever done, whilst also using the same methods that others have done before them.

This is a paradox that can only be solved in one way:

Ignoring this perspective.

When we think of naturally occurring phenomena that defies this paradox (it is very rare) the thing that will always come to mind is DNA

As much as it makes scientific sense, it is always baffling to think that every one of us is biologically unique and that you won’t find another you.

Instead of trying to remake this same complex of originality that DNA displays, why not use it to our advantage.

The best way to be original, is to be you.

This may seem obvious, but we often get caught up in life and forget this, especially in creativity.

Many large organizations that want instant success and green on the balance sheets don’t actually want to allow you to think this way, as what works in the short term is what has worked before, so just copy it.

And of course there is some truth to this, or else a lot of people wouldn’t have made billions in this way.

But people that appreciate the freedom and responsibility that creativity holds, will always agree that being your authentic self will give you the originality, and therefore the value that we are looking for as humans in the long term

Creating what you like is impossible for others to replicate, and therefore impossible to replace.

Imagine if you worked for a company and you were the only human on earth that could do that job.

Not only would you never get fired or leave, but your value would be so high, they’d pay you anything to stay. And you’d probably end up leaving and making your own business anyway…

That’s exactly how we should try and view authenticity in creativity.

No one can like exactly everything you like, and therefore no one can make the exact same creative choices you make.

There will always be a demand out there for what you like, as no one else is making it.

Demand is always going to be greater than supply, when you don’t forcefully try and do something people already have their supply of.

Do that thing you are afraid people will think is weird. If you like it, someone else out there probably will like elements of it too.

At each stage of the process, try to just let yourself take you on the creative journey.

You don’t know where it’s going to lead, and that’s the power of it.

Your creation will find its audience and that’s where marketing comes in. Marketing isn’t and shouldn’t be a part of the creative process.

If you solve your own problems (a need for the creation you are making), there will be people with that same problem as you, waiting to listen.

And as we well know, nothing is cool until you do it long enough that people start to think it is.

People like what others like, and if you focus on delivering what you like and being your authentic self, your originality will make other people like it and give you value.

Share this with a friend, creative or not, because we all create in moments in our life!

— The Ember