This was really insightful and relatable. Several years ago I had a vision for a writing program I was SO excited by. It all just poured into me so clearly and I felt I could have written it in a couple days. I wrote out a skeleton of it and posted about it online and even started gathering a waiting list of eager potential participants. Through gritted teeth I forced myself to finish another project first and as soon as I went to start creating my writing program, I lost it. I couldn't remember half of what had kept me up for nights dreaming about. I couldn't get the energy back or the insights I was bursting to share. It honestly felt like a great loss I'm still grieving. And the memory of that loss has stayed stuck in my body. I feel like if I don't jump into my passionate idea then I'll lose it and still be grieving it ten years later.
What a powerful essay, Philipp! So much here to reflect on, and so much I recognize in myself.
I think you've captured something essential about modern life. We grow up following a familiar script: study, find a good job, build a career, become a useful and respectable member of society. And for a while, it works. Until one day we begin to feel that something is missing.
We start looking for something of our own. Something that would allow us to express all those thoughts and feelings that have been quietly growing inside us for years. The result of our mistakes, experiments, observations, books we've read, and, of course, countless courses we've taken. :)
I particularly loved your Renaissance analogy and the four stages of becoming a master or an artist. There was no shortcut. Years of apprenticeship, endless repetition, hard work, and gradually discovering your own style. Sometimes it took half a lifetime.
And here we are in the creator economy, surrounded by promises of overnight success, instant audiences, and financial freedom in six easy steps. What could possibly go wrong?
I also recognized myself in your descriptions. I'm probably a mixture of the Perfectionist and the Workaholic. I get excited about an idea, throw myself into a new project, spend countless hours researching, experimenting, and trying to build the perfect system. Then another fascinating idea comes along, and the whole cycle begins again.
But the part that moved me most was this:
"When someone reads your work and sees themselves in it, something changes that no words can describe. For a moment two individuals are united."
That's exactly what makes writing so meaningful to me. We put our thoughts, doubts, and vulnerabilities out into the world, and somehow a stranger recognizes something of their own life in them.
Even one sincere comment from someone who saw themselves or their situation differently because of something I wrote can make all those hours worthwhile.
Perhaps that's what we sometimes forget while chasing growth and trying to become better creators. We're not just building publications or audiences. We're slowly finding our own voices, and occasionally helping someone else understand theirs.
Thank you, Philipp. This gave me a lot to think about.
This really landed with me thank you. I’ve been an artisan most of my life. Made my a living as a baker. And been celebrated for the work. Along the way I’ve seen and taught artisan [or craftwork] as being between art and science. In baking college we learn the science. When you have that foundation you can make your products your own. The last decade I’ve poured all my energy and creativity into building [with many others] The Long Table, wonderful and much loved community restaurants. They have deeply moved people because it’s delicious and a hopeful place that practices radical hospitality and makes possible meaningful human connections and is rooted in a community and the soil our food is grown in. It occurs to me that for me The Long Table has been an artistic endeavour. So unique and rewarding. That for me has finished now and I’m taking a breath and opening for what’s next. Your essay is timely. Thank you. Peace&Loaf, x
Oh my dearest Philipp..let me take your hands in mine for a moment and sit with you..there are a few things that stayed with me from this essay.. it is not wrong to look up to people who wrote something and they have become a name to contend with in art, philosophy or elsewhere..of course that their prestige imposes a level of humility about who we are or rather where we are on our journey as artists..yes, artists..both of us and I am adamant on calling you by that name..nothing wrong with admiring their work but I would also say “why not take from them the thread rather than the entire work?”..I read two books by the same author on neuroscience and I loved the first one, totally aligned with it but the second one he wrote left me sad as he was contradicting ruthlessly everything he wrote in the previous one..I take the pieces that align not because I’m narrow minded but because forcing myself to believe something just for the sake of believing doesn’t work..then I came across you example with the steroids..sometimes people do use artifices to enhance themselves..whilst we think they are genuine it is not on us that the things they choose to show won’t tell the whole story..we can only ever know what people choose to share..we can again admire them but not run to follow them to the millimeter..this is where identity is slowly eroded and starts to be confounded with someone or something else..we cannot wear clothes that aren’t tailored for us..use the soul as a map to who you are at the core..it knows better than anyone else out there.. then came the example with who gets to call themselves and Artist..here I truly paused much longer because the question touched me..do we need external validation to be called one?..poetry was not born in me because I signed up to a daily shift of writing poems..I have many poems written in halves..the soul didn’t have any more to say than that..I allow it to breathe and stop where it wants to..and then before today I had two days when my soul was silent..did I stop being a poet for two days?..if the moon is covered by clouds, is it not still there?..if it rains in England as it did these past few days, does it mean that there was no sun?..if I have reached an age where my son will go to uni next year and the woman in me wants a love of her own, a partner to share my life with, does that mean I will stop being a mother?..who else is ever to say who we are but ourselves?..who could ever have the audacity not to call you an Artist when you know you are one?..and if you need someone to say it..then my dearest Philipp, I’ll say it: YOU ARE AN ARTIST..NO DOUBT
Multi-potentialites are not supported for their multi-talents, versatility and passions. They are criticized to pick a lane, a brand, a niche, a tribe. I will have 4 projects going at once. I also have had a very varied career and I have loved every minute of it. We go all in, learn everything we can, do the thing then feel complete and move on. What's wrong with that?
This was really insightful and relatable. Several years ago I had a vision for a writing program I was SO excited by. It all just poured into me so clearly and I felt I could have written it in a couple days. I wrote out a skeleton of it and posted about it online and even started gathering a waiting list of eager potential participants. Through gritted teeth I forced myself to finish another project first and as soon as I went to start creating my writing program, I lost it. I couldn't remember half of what had kept me up for nights dreaming about. I couldn't get the energy back or the insights I was bursting to share. It honestly felt like a great loss I'm still grieving. And the memory of that loss has stayed stuck in my body. I feel like if I don't jump into my passionate idea then I'll lose it and still be grieving it ten years later.
Can you recreate the environment that allowed that to come through? Maybe the people and places you had surrounded yourself with?
What a powerful essay, Philipp! So much here to reflect on, and so much I recognize in myself.
I think you've captured something essential about modern life. We grow up following a familiar script: study, find a good job, build a career, become a useful and respectable member of society. And for a while, it works. Until one day we begin to feel that something is missing.
We start looking for something of our own. Something that would allow us to express all those thoughts and feelings that have been quietly growing inside us for years. The result of our mistakes, experiments, observations, books we've read, and, of course, countless courses we've taken. :)
I particularly loved your Renaissance analogy and the four stages of becoming a master or an artist. There was no shortcut. Years of apprenticeship, endless repetition, hard work, and gradually discovering your own style. Sometimes it took half a lifetime.
And here we are in the creator economy, surrounded by promises of overnight success, instant audiences, and financial freedom in six easy steps. What could possibly go wrong?
I also recognized myself in your descriptions. I'm probably a mixture of the Perfectionist and the Workaholic. I get excited about an idea, throw myself into a new project, spend countless hours researching, experimenting, and trying to build the perfect system. Then another fascinating idea comes along, and the whole cycle begins again.
But the part that moved me most was this:
"When someone reads your work and sees themselves in it, something changes that no words can describe. For a moment two individuals are united."
That's exactly what makes writing so meaningful to me. We put our thoughts, doubts, and vulnerabilities out into the world, and somehow a stranger recognizes something of their own life in them.
Even one sincere comment from someone who saw themselves or their situation differently because of something I wrote can make all those hours worthwhile.
Perhaps that's what we sometimes forget while chasing growth and trying to become better creators. We're not just building publications or audiences. We're slowly finding our own voices, and occasionally helping someone else understand theirs.
Thank you, Philipp. This gave me a lot to think about.
This really landed with me thank you. I’ve been an artisan most of my life. Made my a living as a baker. And been celebrated for the work. Along the way I’ve seen and taught artisan [or craftwork] as being between art and science. In baking college we learn the science. When you have that foundation you can make your products your own. The last decade I’ve poured all my energy and creativity into building [with many others] The Long Table, wonderful and much loved community restaurants. They have deeply moved people because it’s delicious and a hopeful place that practices radical hospitality and makes possible meaningful human connections and is rooted in a community and the soil our food is grown in. It occurs to me that for me The Long Table has been an artistic endeavour. So unique and rewarding. That for me has finished now and I’m taking a breath and opening for what’s next. Your essay is timely. Thank you. Peace&Loaf, x
I think what you have done is great Mr Herbert.
Oh my dearest Philipp..let me take your hands in mine for a moment and sit with you..there are a few things that stayed with me from this essay.. it is not wrong to look up to people who wrote something and they have become a name to contend with in art, philosophy or elsewhere..of course that their prestige imposes a level of humility about who we are or rather where we are on our journey as artists..yes, artists..both of us and I am adamant on calling you by that name..nothing wrong with admiring their work but I would also say “why not take from them the thread rather than the entire work?”..I read two books by the same author on neuroscience and I loved the first one, totally aligned with it but the second one he wrote left me sad as he was contradicting ruthlessly everything he wrote in the previous one..I take the pieces that align not because I’m narrow minded but because forcing myself to believe something just for the sake of believing doesn’t work..then I came across you example with the steroids..sometimes people do use artifices to enhance themselves..whilst we think they are genuine it is not on us that the things they choose to show won’t tell the whole story..we can only ever know what people choose to share..we can again admire them but not run to follow them to the millimeter..this is where identity is slowly eroded and starts to be confounded with someone or something else..we cannot wear clothes that aren’t tailored for us..use the soul as a map to who you are at the core..it knows better than anyone else out there.. then came the example with who gets to call themselves and Artist..here I truly paused much longer because the question touched me..do we need external validation to be called one?..poetry was not born in me because I signed up to a daily shift of writing poems..I have many poems written in halves..the soul didn’t have any more to say than that..I allow it to breathe and stop where it wants to..and then before today I had two days when my soul was silent..did I stop being a poet for two days?..if the moon is covered by clouds, is it not still there?..if it rains in England as it did these past few days, does it mean that there was no sun?..if I have reached an age where my son will go to uni next year and the woman in me wants a love of her own, a partner to share my life with, does that mean I will stop being a mother?..who else is ever to say who we are but ourselves?..who could ever have the audacity not to call you an Artist when you know you are one?..and if you need someone to say it..then my dearest Philipp, I’ll say it: YOU ARE AN ARTIST..NO DOUBT
After I finished my apprenticeship I did a Journeyman myself for 1 year in Germany :)
Was a great experience. I actually learnt more from German craftsman in 1 yr than I did in England in 5. And their organisation was amazing.
The journeyman. How true. I've been travelling for 26 years, half my life, and only now do I feel ready to say "This is my stuff."
...Almost 😂
I think this is beautiful.
Honestly Philip I would like to call myself a developing artist. Honestly. Artisan doesn't fit me.
I think with all the feedbacks I am getting from my audience I would call myself an artist. I am still learning the ropes though.
Thanks for sharing this.
Multi-potentialites are not supported for their multi-talents, versatility and passions. They are criticized to pick a lane, a brand, a niche, a tribe. I will have 4 projects going at once. I also have had a very varied career and I have loved every minute of it. We go all in, learn everything we can, do the thing then feel complete and move on. What's wrong with that?