To Like or Not to Like
Nexus Café – Season Two – Episode 3
July 26, 2015
“Talent is God given. Be humble. Fame is man-given. Be
grateful. Conceit is self-given. Be careful.”
John Wooden
These days, it is all too easy to sacrifice quality for
quantity. Social Networking requires constant content to stay relevant. For the
artist, the drive to produce often means their work suffers. There is no denying that connecting with like
minded creators the world over is amazing BUT can all too often be addictive.
Relationships fostered, have become much like the work being produced. Again, a
question of sacrificing the quality of the relationships we’re building over
the quantity of relationships we’ve found ourselves trying to keep alive.
I’ve spent a huge amount of time I could have spent
writing, producing crap quotations and sharing and promoting the work of others
who are trying to build a name for themselves.
Often, I have found myself sharing work I may find inferior or not to my
liking,for the sake of returning a like or a share. Other times, I have
promoted others fiercly, in the hopes the action might be returned, never to
receive so much as a thank you, let alone
support of my own work. I was
paying very little attention to the quality of the relationships I was
building, and my work,not to mention my heart, suffered for it.
It’s important to remember it’s real people on the other
end of the connections we are making (no matter the name they give you) Real
people are subject to a host of personality types and it is so vital we don’t
take their rejections personally. To
quote a popular facebook share…Not everyone has the same heart as you.
No matter the quality of work you’re producing, if you
dedicate hours a day to your networking platforms, your numbers are going to
grow. Likes will increase. Shares will too. But are you willing to forgo the
passion that drives you to create to see something you wouldn’t have dreamed of
showing the world a year or two ago? It belittles the purpose of creating.
Those divine moments when our passions connect us to a part of the world’s
magic that is forgotten in numbers and popularity contests.
“With fame, you can't trust everybody. You can't depend
on them being there for you as a person. They will only be there because of
what you've got and what you can bring to their life. It's not a
relationship-it's a leech.”
Chris Brown
Don’t let the leech suck the creativity out of you. Return to the notebooks, the canvas, the
crayons. Create with integrity and let
your work speak for itself. Don’t be manipulated by trends, hashtags, and
marketing ploys to snag your hard won dollars in order to be seen. Know the
game that’s being played and let your work speak for you. The rewards of my poetry are so much sweeter
when I haven’t pimped the soul out of it. When a stranger who owes me nothing
stumbles upon a blog post and is kind enough to share…simply because it spoke
to them.
Use the platforms as tools…not life lines. Share your
work…don’t sell your soul.
“The definition of success to me is not necessarily a
price tag, not fame, but having a good life, and being able to say I did the
right thing at the end of the day.”
Jeremy Luke
Natasha Head
AKA: Tashtoo
