Day 270

Went to a pop-up screening of Lemonade tonight. A documentary about people in the ad industry who get laid off and subsequently pursue things they are passionate about.

When I first saw the trailer a while back, I was a bit skeptical. Think the music had a lot to do with it. Seemed a little heavy on the sob story and there's nothing more annoying than listening to people feel sorry for themselves. It gets to the "makin' lemonade" later, but by then I'm already a bit checked out.

That did not stop me from seeing the film. While I was a few minutes late, I did catch the crux of it and I could relate to just about everything each person featured talked about.

Not looking for a job, looking for something interesting to do. 

Realized when you're doing the right thing, things just fall into place. The perfect person comes along, the perfect opportunity, the perfect solution. (To me, that part is less about luck and more about attitude. It's amazing what happens when you keep an open mind, when you put yourself in situations that bring you a step closer to what you want, when you start meeting new people who enlighten your or help you in ways you never would have imagined).

When you start doing things you love, everyday feels like the weekend. And it's true! Not once did I look at the clock at my other jobs, even though I was working more than 40 hours a week. Now that I have a new job I find myself counting the minutes until 5pm on Friday, just like a robot, just like I used to do and I think it's kind of pathetic. It's not because I don't like to work. I actually really love working. I just think 9-5, mon-fri is an antiquated system that is less about efficiency and more about social acceptance. All I know is, if you told people they could leave when they finished their work, or spend time on their own projects, I guarantee it wouldn't take them 9 hours to get the job done. But where's the incentive to be efficient when you can't leave until 5 anyway?

You don't have to lose your job to do the things you love. You just have to make the time and the effort. Which is hard when you don't have time, but not impossible. You just have to keep taking babysteps. Doing little things that bring you closer to what you want.

Getting laid off was the highlight of their career. I've said the exact same thing. The thing about the ad business is we are in the business of communication. And communication is necessary no matter where you go from there or what you do after. In advertising, we learn how to talk to people, how to create, how to think, how others think. We learn about art and we learn about business. Then we learn how to take all of that and use it to communicate an idea. Which means when we go off to start our own business or launch our own projects, we already have an important set of skills under our belts and resources that we never would have had, had we not worked in advertising. So it's not all a waste.

And the comment I agreed with most of all: Getting laid off from advertising is awesome.

This movie didn't make me look at my situation or experience any differently. I didn't need someone to tell me to pursue my passions, or find them. I didn't need a pep talk. I assume a lot of people don't. At the same time, I assume a lot of people do. And for that, I think it's a fantastic film and endeavor. At a time when unemployment is skyrocketing and people are seeing everything they worked for slide through the cracks, it's nice to be reminded that "it's not a pink slip, it's a blank page".

Anyone who finds a way to do what they love is my hero. Still, the people most inspiring to me are the ones who didn't wait for the pink slip. I want to see a movie about people who quit the jobs that left them unfulfilled or kept their jobs but used every moment of their free time to work on their side projects until they manifested. Those stories strike me (and excite me) the most.