Almost 8 months ago, I walked away from corporate life to start The Style Cooperative.
It was a really bold (read: ballsy) move. This, I admit. I was looking for ways to exercise my thoughts and energy in a way that felt fulfilling. I began designing and working on an idea that I had come up with years before, and it became my life.
If you're into twitter and follow a lot of like-minded folks who are young, creative, entrepreneurial, and passionate about their craft, you start to see a lot of similarities. One thing that I always see and hear from other people working to develop their future is the proverbial "grind-off".
The Grind-Off (n): The act of expressing publicly how hard one works, typically in a passion project that is expected to result in positive creative work to be consumed by the masses. Common phrases include: "The grind never sleeps", "I'll sleep when I'm dead", or some other expression indicating the lengths they will go to be successful.
And I shall not throw stones, because I, at times, am guilty of this as well. But there comes a point when you realize that even if you never sleep at all, there will still always be work you could do. Our work and ideas are not in a vacuum, and in order to progress and come to the table with the most original, ridiculous, and effing fantastic work we've ever produced, sometimes you have to know when to push pause.
Then I saw this video with Stefan Sagmeister on TED about design and the power of time off. From all the self-induced stress that many of us are under, I feel like this is an interesting look at the idea of job vs. career vs. calling, and what it means for each of us today before we hit a plateau, wall, or anything else similarly uncomfortable.
Think about it.
