"Prestige is especially dangerous to the ambitious. If you want to make ambitious people waste their time on errands, the way to do it is to bait the hook with prestige. That’s the recipe for getting people to give talks, write forewords, serve on committees, be department heads, and so on. It might be a good rule simply to avoid any prestigious task. If it didn’t suck, they wouldn’t have had to make it prestigious.”
(Excerpt from "How To Do What You Love" )
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The battle between Prestige and Ambition is that of equivalent to angels and demons. As a creative we want to feel validated for our contribution, our hard work, our genius, which then have us chasing the big name outlets, and that large number of followers/likes. Our love affair with cyber appreciation can lead us down a rabbit hole, just like Alice. A following, a fancy title, accolades, should all be a byproducts of our work, not what defines our worth.
What I love about Kendrick Lamar during the Grammys, is while everyone was denouncing Macklemore for winning a Grammy for best new artist and best rap album, Kendrick continued to outshine the majority of the performers, not skipping a beat, not shedding an ounce of disappointment. He understands. At the same time what I detest about Drake in losing the Rolling Stone cover to the late great Philip Seymour Hoffman, Drake responded in offense to not receiving this prestiges reward. He only felt his worth was based on how often he can be honored.
Focus on your legacy and not your pedestal.
Be cool my friends. Your day is coming.
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