This quote is from a book called "The Daily Entrepreneur: 33 Success Habits for Small Business Owners, Freelancers and Aspiring 9-5 Escape Artists".
Click here to find it on Amazon
This quote in particular, about feeling that someone is about to turn up and explain to you that you aren't a business, you are just messing around, you don't really know what you're doing and say "Enough playing, time to get up, go to work and do a real job". Not too long ago this feeling really hit me and I suddenly struggled to even update my business Facebook page. I was completely convinced that starting my business was just a desperate excuse not to get a job, and that doing a bit of face painting and henna tattooing was not a career. Perhaps I should admit to myself that these things are fun, but they are just hobbies. I should get a job, work during the day for a steady income and then spend my weekends doing a bit of face painting.
Our Education System
A story of a little boy with a passion for trees
In our society, particularly in our system of education, there can still be felt the influence of an education system built during the industrial revolution to create workers, managers, accountants, or whatever was needed at the time. What type of worker was needed was set by the Government and the curriculum of schools adjusted accordingly. It may seem that this is not at all the case today. However, on the whole, this sadly does not seem to be the case. All that has changed are the types of jobs we are training our children to do.One school I was teaching in had a little boy who was only 4 years old. He was autistic and required a career to be with him at all times. However, what was incredibly remarkable about this child was his fascination with trees. He could look at any tree or bush and tell you what type of tree or bush is was, how healthy it was, what flowers would bloom on it, roughly how long it had lived, and more! The school had a couple of acres of pretty woodland attached to it, and he would delight in taking visitors around and telling them about all of the trees. He would always carry a small branch everywhere he went.
This boy knew so much about trees that the groundskeeper would only cut down rotten branches or clear spaces entirely based on the word of this 4 year old.
But in a school a passion is not valued particularly highly if it is not a passion deemed "useful" by the Government. Over the last few years, the Government has been focusing less on engineering skills and more on academic skills, particularly maths and science. Because of this, if a child shows a love of maths and a passion for problem solving then they are rewarded highly with maths clubs, competitions, challenges and get to be in the subject they love for an hour a day.
However, this 5 year old boy just had the wrong passion. Instead of being allowed to spend his time developing his passion, he was dragged into maths lesson after maths lesson, learning about graphs or angles of polygons. He would spend each lesson staring out of the window watching the leaves blow in the wind and being continually scolded for not completing his worksheet.
Just imagine the outrage in our society if there was a boy who was incredible at maths, but every day the class had an hour of learning about the life-cycles of trees, pollination and gardening. If he was allowed to do maths at home but was told off if he was found secretly practicing his times tables instead of drawing out diagrams of leaves.
Artists are not useful
or "Why You Should Stop Drawing and Become an Accountant"
Sadly, artists are just not valued highly in our education system, simply because the Government wants people who fit into pre-determined roles and jobs that will benefit society financially. Sure, we have art lessons at school, but what about the child who longs to learn circus skills? The child who just wants to draw cartoons? We are sometimes encouraged by our teachers and parents to learn these skills through after-school clubs or "experience weekends", but how often are we encouraged to take our passion and turn it into a job? More often that not we are simply told that these skills are hobbies, to be enjoyed as a reward after getting Government approved 9-5 jobs.It is extremely hard to deviate from the path set by so many others. To decide that you only have one shot at life, and you're going to do it your way. It is easy to follow a path that guarantees a nice income. It is easy to convince yourself that no-one enjoys work and only a few very lucky people have managed to get a job they enjoy.
It is easy to watch your life go by.
But to find your passion, to push forward through problems, to do what you love everyday, rewards the soul. It is the difference between existing and living.
