Tag: creativity

Efforts and Optimism

A real entrepreneur is somebody who has no safety net underneath them. — Henry Kravis

You never know what people think of you. I walk past the same homeless person near my work at least twice a day. I have an incredible amount of respect for him. I’ve given him money a few times. He assembles massive amounts of rummage he can sell (e.g. cardboard, small electronics, bottles, etc.). He has a cell phone, I’ve seen it. The piles in the carts must stack 7 or 8 feet in the air, and he parks them right on the sidewalk. Then suddenly, he’ll disappear and come back with newer clothes and a cart that’s barely full.

Once he disappeared for two weeks. I was randomly walking alongside a young girl who yelled “You’re back!” when she saw him, smiled and continued walking by. There must be a few hundred people with some opinion of him and he probably has no idea what they are and probably doesn’t care. 

Napoleon once said “Respect the burden,” but I think mine is different. I respect his efforts and optimism. I wonder  what I might do in the same situation. Creativity and determination are like the spoon Andy used in Shawshank Redemption. Figure out what you want to do with what you have and do it.

Not Quite Picasso

You have to have an idea of what you are going to do, but it should be a vague idea. — Pablo Picasso

If blogging were a relationship, we’d be at the point where we know we like each other, but we can’t come up with an excuse to talk. I’ve been thinking of what to say all week. It all sounded boring. So instead I wanted to take a picture (thousand words and all that)… I have no camera.

I’ve been in this situation before. We usually end up meeting on accident and talking about whatever is going on around us. Nothing is really going on right now though. Except I do have theory I came up with today.

Things get good, then boring, then creative.

  • Cameras take clear pictures nowadays, but people prefer filters. Maybe HD pics were cool but they got boring.
  • Picasso was an artist who learned to paint perfect portraits around the time photographs were becoming popular. Realistic paintings were good, but they got boring.
It seems obvious, but it makes me wonder about things that haven’t even gotten good enough to be boring.

If this blog were a real date, I never would have talked about this theory. I know better than that. I would have asked a lot more questions, haha. But I’m already too comfortable. Once my blog and I get past this awkwardness we’ll try to build something meaningful. For now we’ll just think about each other and hardly say anything.