Do creatives need real 'safe' jobs?
It's not black and white. If only it were.
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Read this👇
The above is an excerpt shared from a piece in The Times written by James Marriott. Now I have no idea who James Marriott is, and can’t read the article in its entirety as it’s paywalled, but that doesn’t matter. Nor does it matter who shared it on Substack.
What does matter is the concept and opinion shared within the excerpt. Not the part where writers (or artists or creatives) should prepare for failure or ‘worst-case-scenarios’. That may be a very pessimistic way of looking at things, but it’s realistic none-the-less.
The part that irks me, is the thought train that creatives need to ‘stomach a safe corporate job’. This statement has been giving me the ick for days. I thought I could leave it, not feel the need to comment or write about it. But the ick is still there. In fact, I have a couple of unsettling and contradicting thoughts on the topic. And they are the two sides of a coin.
Side One
Everyone needs a plan B (a.k.a Or a safe corporate job)
When I was in my final years of school all I wanted to be was an actress. Actually first I wanted to be a singer, but the fact I couldn’t sing was a major factor that was probably going to stand in my way, so I turned to acting. I remember sitting down with the school’s career advisor and having ‘the chat’. What did I want to be? And, what subjects should I choose to get me there? Long story short, I was told, in no uncertain terms that it was a lovely idea, but what did I really want to do. I said teaching. I did neither.
My point is, from that moment on, I felt stupid. Stupid for wanting to aim for something so frivolous. Something that wasn’t a real job.
I like to think that we end up where we’re mean to be, and now I write fiction. I still create characters but now I tell the whole story.
I’ve faced the same scenario with all of my kids (step and biological). One is now a professional musician/singer/songwriter, one is in the UK creating advertising campaigns, one is following their dream of screen acting, and one is a trainee beauty therapist. All were told they should think about real or safe jobs, either by their educational institutions or family and friends. We as parents, supported all of them 100% in chasing their dreams.
Yes, they’ve had to have jobs along the way to support themselves from hospitality to office work to retail. But they have never needed to stomach a safe, corporate job nor should they have.
No let’s look at the flip side
Side Two
You don’t need to live a meaningless life
We all know the image of the struggling artist. Living on the poverty line, struggling to make ends meet and facing constant rejection. No one understands their artistic vision. And they suffer for their art.
Amie McNee, author of We Need Your Art, is unashamedly proud of admitting she knew early on she didn’t want a 9-5 existence. Amie is someone who I admire and respect deeply. She’s honest, and says things that many are thinking but wouldn’t dream of saying. She gives them permission.
Her essay👇
resounded with many who feel the same way. They want to put everything into their art. They don’t want a 9-5.
As Amie says, it’s not that she doesn’t want to work, it’s just that she doesn’t want to do meaningless work. For Amie, creating is her purpose and one she has built her life around. One that she works damn hard for. And she’s never had to stomach or wanted to stomach a safe, corporate job.
I loved her essay and her subsequent writings on the topic (including her We Need Your Art Book buy it here), it 100% resonated with me. But…
Of course there’s a but.
The middle ground
What if you don’t realise that out of the gate? Like, when you’re young enough. What if you’re half way through your life, living it the way you thought you were supposed to live because that’s what society told you, and now you realise your purpose lies in a creative existence. And yet, creating doesn’t earn you money. You can’t just turn on an income when it comes to writing/painting/pottery. So, is it back to the rotting garret?
This is where my conundrum lies.
Yes, I want to live a life of purpose doing something I feel compelled to do. Something that brings me joy and makes my life sparkle. I want to write. I want to create. I want to spend my days exploding a glitterbomb of ideas into words.
But, I also have a mortgage, kids, commitments. I have wants like traveling, experiencing.
As much as I want to, I can’t just up and leave my life to spend my days creating.
I need to build that life. And that not only takes time, it takes money. It takes dismantling the current life brick by brick and rebuilding it one by one. Differently.
As much as I hate to admit it, as much as I want to dismiss the opinions of the James Marriott’s of the world and embrace the Amie McNees, for most of us, and particularly for those of us in the midst of our lives, there has to be a middle ground.
Recalibration
In a way, my kids are more fortunate than me. They benefited from my belief in a creative life and believing and trusting in them. They live in a time where creativity is more embraced in some ways now than it has been in the past (although this is up for debate). They are beginning from the right place and forming a middle ground that works for them. Where they end up who knows.
Me, on the other hand, and I think maybe a lot of creatives who find or rediscover their creativity well into life, possibly feel stuck.
Stuck in a life they built that isn’t terrible. In fact, it’s great and beautiful and satisfying in so many ways, but maybe it just doesn’t resonate fully anymore.
So, does that mean leave your partner, sell your house, build a cabin in the woods and disconnect from the life you’ve built? It can, but in most circumstances that’s not the answer.
The answer is somehow recalibrating. And it takes time. I’m still figuring it out. And while I’m not at the life stage of needing to stomach a safe corporate job, I still need to pay the bills.
We can’t all just start over again, and most of us don’t want to. What we do want is to find how we can bring our art to the forefront and live a meaningful life within that spectrum. And that, will look different for everyone.
For me, the pull to downsize, simplify, go back to basics is strong. It’s powerful. But navigating it is challenging. Right now it feels like walking through a garden of catchweed. But I’ll write more on that later.
For now, it’s realising that the path isn’t linear, it isn’t black or white. As much as my gut wants it to be.
Dear Creatives,
NO, you do NOT need a safe corporate job that will suck your soul from the inside out.
YES, you need an income and to contribute to society.
YES, you do need to figure out what that looks like for you.
YES, it will depend on where you are in life.
YES, it is possible to build a meaningful creative life and not live skint in a rotting garret.
YES, your creativity is IMPORTANT. Be brave.
Love your words Jodi. I left my corporate job a few years ago and I'm existing in that middle ground at the moment - not perfect, but a shift in the right direction.
I spent years doing ‘filling in’ jobs - part time work while we raised a family in various fields. I was unsatisfied in all of them after the first few years. Meanwhile I tried several creative projects to work out what I wanted to do- what I wanted ‘to be’- all because I was told at school that it probably wasn’t possible for me to be an author. Each of my children has qualifications for occupations they do not work in. I’ve never felt more ‘me’ -more at peace -than when I write.