Hi there! I took a break from making art today and I had so many things on my mind, as I always do, but this time I wanted to write them down. Or… type more specifically. Probably going to be a bit of jumping topics so bare with me. When I ramble… I ramble, haha
I’ve been thinking a lot about the going ons in this new world of cryptocurrency (crypto), how it’s affected my world outside of the computer and what this might mean for my future.
Beginning my journey from a simple card game, that I’ve completely given up on and will never return to, all the way to making art and trying to sell it online has been a wild ride.
My start in the world of crypto started from a place of fear, longing, selfishness and loneliness. I was a fresh graduate. I was a stupid person that attended university because “That was what fresh high school graduates did”. And while I don’t completely regret that decision, I’m also around $35k in debt from student loans. Had I learned to be an individual and think for myself at an earlier age, I might have been successful much quicker. But living in the past doesn’t do anything for me, nor anyone else. The “Hindsight is 20/20” applies quite heavily here. There is nothing wrong with wanting an education, so don’t spin this out of context, please.
I’d mentioned in a previous post on Cent that I came from a place of trying to make quick money. Which, as always, never works. Actively working is what gets results as many people tend to, but also sometimes actively try to forget. It’s made me a much, much stronger person now and I’m quite proud that I took the leap and haven’t looked back. I’m quite proud of my feats if I may toot my own horn for a second. But I know I’ve still got a very long road ahead of me before I can even count myself as a successful individual or artist. There are many more things to learn and many individuals I haven’t spoken to yet!
That aside, I’ve seen a lot of the real world here in the online world. Even with how early we are in this market, it scares me to see it be exactly what I’d feared it to be. Many artists scrambling past each other trying to get their pieces out in front of others, even at the risk of losing their own persona. I’ve seen what people get attention and how they get attention. It’s not a matter of “This person has good art”, or “This person is getting that attention because of XYZ…” it’s a matter of being themselves moreso than that. A matter of the connections they made during the journey into what they are now. The artists that get a lot of traction tend to have already been getting that traction in the first place. They started in almost the exact same starting line that we all did. The most that happened was, they moved forward first. I’ve seen a lot of individuals trying to break them down, myself included at the beginning of this journey, and say that some of those artists are undeserving. And it’s not true at all, at least for a very large group of those individuals.
If I may for a second here: No one is deserving of everything, but everyone is deserving of something. If you cannot put yourself in the shoes of the other person, you do not deserve to feel their feelings, to understand their pressure, their fears, their works, nor their status.
There are very, very few people that have “cheated” their way to the top, but in even that example there was a form of having worked hard somewhere in that journey. Now, is this “cheat” the person being true to themselves in this case? Not necessarily, but there’s a reason they’re getting some of that attention and why it’s working even if shunned by others.
I want to take an example from myself for a quick point: What kinds of tweets get the most attention? Is it my art releases? Is it my works in progress? Is it the tweets that I put lots of hashtags on?
No. It’s none of that. The people that give those any kind of attention tend to be the ones already familiar with my works. Even any new people tend to be wary and only like that they’ve already really liked before. The tweets that get the most attention are… the giveaway tweets. Why?
Well, let’s look back… “…I came from a place of trying to make quick money…many people tend to…actively try to forget [about] actively working.”
And you may think “Okay, so if that’s the case, why don’t you do more giveaways?” What exactly would I accomplish with giving every single thing away? I’d attract a lot of the wrong crowd, for one thing, but also if I tried to diversify down the line, I’d be caught in the web I’d spun for myself. Lastly, where would my income come from? If I branded myself as a giveaway account my sales would be lesser than if I were growing organically. It’s nice to see those follower numbers grow during one, but that cannot and will not be me.
Only someone like Mr. Beast can pull something like this off as he, as far as I can tell, is very much about giving away anyways. He purposely gave himself that brand and he is sticking to it.
Rambling aside, what you and I should be excited about, even if this is starting to morph into the real world already, is how early we are. This is the life of a pioneer. How did the people on Twitch.tv begin their now-successful careers? How did the artists that garner attention get their following? How have the journalists, writers, voice actors etc… gotten their status? They started somewhere. They practiced, worked hard, and made someone out of themselves.
For me, personally even as excited as I am to be a pioneer, I’m more excited to see the space develop. The tech that is coming out is absolutely amazing to see and what is happening around the world is quite amusing to watch. I’m excited to see where I am in five years from today. Ecstatic to see myself improving so fast because of how much passion I still have for making what I make. Absolutely stupefied that people enjoy what I’ve created and I’m so happy to see it!
I hope this was insightful to you guys. I’ve needed to word vomit for a while now but I hope that this is something that you can find useful as well as amusing to read.
Thank you all for reading this far if you have.
I’ll see you when I see you.
