"A lot of people have ideas, but there are few who decide to do something about them now. Not tomorrow. Not next week. But today. The true entrepreneur is a doer, not a dreamer."
— Nolan Bushnell*
* someone who had a lot of resources to do something about his ideas
The world is full of ideas, but few people can make something out of them.
Many people have a business concept, a novel or a video game ready to emerge.
But how many people have the resources to get their creations made? Think of the barriers: you can find yourself defeated before starting by not valuing your own output, or not having the time or inner resilience to get started. And when you get the gumption to persevere, what happens then? What challenges will you meet? What support do you get?
How many exceptional ideas are lost because people are discouraged along the way or before they even start? Many good products don’t arrive to their audiences’ eager hands because their idea-dreamers don’t have pockets full of cash, calendars full of time, a stable self confidence, and contact lists full of expertise to advise them and give them feedback.
As Su and I explored getting our own creative work going, we recognized we were probably a common use case: finding disparate silos of project-based funding our ideas didn’t neatly fit into, absent knowledge of what constitutes a good pitch, a good application, a good next step. Discovering that access to creative grants or other funding was rendered inaccessible due to complex criteria, daunting vetting processes, often months-long turnarounds. Lack of sharing, lack of insight, lack of awareness in a calcified process that seems to work for a few survivors but discourages many quality dreams.
There’s no user experience design in the systems and they’re only sufficient for the most privileged use cases.
We found a bewildering absence of path-making. There are faint trails, but no compass to figure out how to go to different destinations. As we navigate the systems, we want to make these existing paths more accessible. We will start alternative paths when old ones are no longer serviceable. We want to leave equity and accessibility as our path.
We weren't alone in our observations, so we are connecting with the change-makers to gather momentum on blazing these new trails.
As we make sense of things, we are dropping our resources into AirTables and links, or making blog posts, and categorizing our signposts according to what high-level user stories we believe creatives need to solve and what they’ll focus on developing:
1. As a creative, I want to know how to make a living from my work and protect my interests
Your Business: developing and safeguarding your creative work, earning money
2. As a creative, I want to know what skills and knowledge are required to succeed at various types of work and how to continually grow in my career
Your Career: developing yourself, constant learning ,skill development and self-advocacy
3. As a creative, I want to understand human systems so that I can drive optimal team collaboration and improve the conditions of success
Your Team: understanding how to optimize collaboration, culture, and the necessity of promoting human capital in driving innovation. Thinking about where we work, how we work, how to be more engaged and productive.
4. As a creative, I want to know how to find communities & advocate for myself
Connections: developing your community, finding guilds and supportive communities.
We want to empower everyone with knowledge to avoid predators and thrive in a world where they can bring their talents and ideas to fruition. We want to be a force multiplier in the industry, to boost others as a group where we become exhausted on our own.
Who is out there? Who needs help? Who can give it?
Look at our user stories on our resource pages and peek at what we’ve already got started there. We’re inviting you to collaborate with us or to tell us what you need. What’s missing? What needs updating? What else would you like to see?
Feel free to comment below ↓ or send us a note.
"Many ideas grow better when transplanted into another mind than the one where they sprang up."
- Oliver Wendell Holmes