Why Aren't More People Doing Remarkable, Interesting Work?

A pep talk for your next career move (and at least two highbrow mentions of Ricky Martin’s balls)

Do the most remarkable, interesting thing you can imagine.

Do I sound like a Pinterest meme covered in lavender?

Or how about one of Diane Keaton’s turtlenecks, personified?

I apologize, really. But, I can’t help but think that maybe—just maybe—we ought to do exactly that: the most remarkable, interesting thing we can imagine.

Ahhhhhhhhh, a sigh of relief at that suggestion, since we’re all sitting around with unlimited budgets and a private jet waiting to whisk us off—RIGHT? But, hear me out: what if this were the key?

I’m convinced this is my official position for “what to do when you’re currently questioning everything about life.” Feeling stuck? Not sure what to do with your career? Binge-eating Dunkin’ Donuts blueberry donuts and then getting mad at yourself because your keyboard is sticky? (Stop calling me out.)

One way to approach it is to stay stuck for years, rolling on decades, and end up resenting twenty-one year old girls with nice jugs. That always happens, doesn’t it?

The other way to approach it, however, is to bring beauty back into your life, however you can.

Beauty is a vitamin. And we ain’t takin’ enough of it.

Of course, I don’t mean red lipstick—of which I have just ordered seven, last night, in some pathetic attempt to look “holiday” without looking like I just tore open the flesh of a pig—but rather, the kind of beauty that is your life.

Would you describe your life as beautiful?

Or would you say it’s more like “an old, rickety tug boat going round and round in circles around a lifesize replica of Ricky Martin’s balls?”

Not that there’s anything wrong with those. I’m sure they’re beautiful in their own right. But it doesn’t help the fact that most of us spend the entirety of our lives doing things we don’t want to be doing, with people we don’t like, in careers we don’t care about, in places we don’t enjoy.

What is this?

Why do we do this?

As it seems, we would rather have titles that impress people whose names we will never remember. And we’d rather have paychecks that allow us to buy jacuzzis we’ll never sit in. And we’d rather do the kinds of things that have a clear path to victory we’ll never enjoy.

Because, we cling to comfort the way bugs cling to light.

Gimmiegimmiegimmiegimmie.

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I recently stumbled upon the work of @lewismillerdesign, and immediately was taken.

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He’s a floral designer who’s taking typically “ugly,” undistinguished things, like New York City trash cans, and turning them into big, giant, fairytale works of art. He calls these “flower flashes.” He’s being called “The Banksy of Flowers.” And, I can’t think of something more beautiful—or a better marketing move, for that matter.

Today, his clients include The Metropolitan Museum of Art and The New York Public Library, for god’s sake.

He’s teamed up with Framebridge, Lily Pulitzer, and a bunch of other designers to create products.

He’s been all over TV, like The Today Show.

And he’s on his way to producing a prototype of his now-famous flower sheep he made for a client—something I would, like, absolutely buy?!

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When you see something like this, you don’t see work, you see joy. You see fun. You see thrill. You see inspiration.

And…it is a whole different way of thinking about work.

This guy 100,000% could have stayed at the flower shop where he was employed, backstroking it around in the comfort seas. (Definitely the name of the next Royal Caribbean cruise ship.) Instead, he stayed there for two years—just two years—before starting his own floral design firm, taking a leap he’d never regret.

So I wonder to myself: why is it that some of us seem instinctively driven to pursue this kind of beauty with our work, while the rest of us are instinctively driven to open a can of tuna and call it a day?

Is it because we don’t have the ideas in the first place?

Or is it because we’re too scared of not being able to pull it off?

Or, is everything forevermore a bland and passionless financial decision, eternally pulling our strings like marionettes on a stage?

LET’S TAKE A POLL.

(Tell me more about what you think—I’d love to hear in the comments.)

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The other day, the stone mason said to me: “I wish I could do nothing but build the world’s most spectacular fireplaces.”

So I said, “Well, why don’t you?”

And he said, “A long time ago, a mentor told me there would never be enough demand for it; that I’d need to always supplement with concrete and block foundations.”

And I cried tiny little tears inside.

Because this is the exact kind of thinking that gets us in trouble with beauty. This guy is one of the best stone mason’s in the region, and it would be a GIFT if he were to focus his efforts on creating the world’s most spectacular fireplaces—something he studied for years.

Instead, beauty gets tamped down by logic.

Or, what we think is logic.

But, what if our brain knew less than our heart?

And, what if we let the heart win…just this once?

If it’s about the money, I can assure you: it would be significantly easier for a guy like him to get his name out there, be 100% booked up throughout the year, and charge premium rates—if he were passion-fevered over fireplaces, the way Lewis Miller is passion-fevered over flowers.

Imagine if Lewis Miller had thought to himself, “There will never be enough people to pay me to arrange flowers in garbage cans. I’d better stick with my job at the flower shop.”

He would be a no-name florist; yet another person making yet another bouquet of roses for some guy named Jimmy to give to his wife on Valentine’s Day once he remembers at 7:59pm on his way home from the bar.

I wonder how many people don’t realize that this is how the modern career works; that attaching your name to the most remarkable, interesting thing you can imagine IS the job. Do this, and focus on answering this question for yourself, and everything else will come easily: the reputation, the money, the word-of-mouth, the joy.

I suppose, however, that answering that question is really the hard part.

Most of us don’t know what kind of ketchup makes us happy, let alone what kind of work does.

But, maybe that’s why it’s imperative that it be considered.

Reflected upon.

Thought about.

And taken seriously.

Imagine, your happiness being taken seriously?

Because while it may be easy to backstroke around in the comfort seas all day…

Fuck man, you are still in a sea.

And you can only do laps around Ricky Martin’s balls for so long.