You Can't Just Want It — You Have to Need It...

A guide for creatives ready to bet on themselves

I’ve heard a few different variations of the same creative block recently, and it goes something like this: “I find it really difficult to work on my show if I’m not certain it’s going to pay off in the end.”

It’s a feeling worth examining, because the answer reveals something fundamental about the nature of creative work itself.

The Résumé Model Doesn’t Apply Here

When you submit a résumé, you understand the deal. There’s a chance you won’t get that particular job, but you also know that if you send out enough of them with enough persistence, something will eventually come through. We’ve all seen it happen. It’s a model we understand intuitively: effort in, result out.

Creative pursuits feel completely different. You want to build a show, record an album, put together a stand-up set, hang a gallery exhibit. You’ve seen people do it professionally — comedians, performers, speakers working the college circuit or corporate events — but it doesn’t feel like submitting résumés. And honestly? It isn’t.

When you submit a résumé, you’re asking to become a component. Picture a car with thousands of parts and wires — you’re saying, “Hey, I fit right here. Plug me in.” But when you decide to build a show, launch a creative career, or make your living as an artist, you’re not applying to be a part. You are the entire machine.

You’re the CEO of Your Own Art

Building a creative life from scratch means becoming all of it at once: the writer, the director, the performer, the marketing director, the website designer, the video editor, the press agent, the photographer, the promotional materials curator — and perhaps most importantly of all, the reckless believer in a result that doesn’t exist yet.

You have to believe — genuinely, stubbornly, sometimes irrationally — that if you pour yourself into this thing for long enough (typically years), it will pay off. And that is exactly where things frequently break down.

The distance between the idea and the success of that idea, when you’re building it all from scratch, is a massive leap compared to collecting and submitting résumés.

Let’s Not Sugarcoat It

While I’d love to say “when you do something you love, you never work a day in your life,” the truth is this: when you do what you love, you work the same eight-hour day as everyone else — and then you work another eight hours on top of that. And while those extra hours are easier to justify because yes, you love it, there’s still the 60% of everything that isn’t fun. The paperwork. The taxes. The learning curve of things you never wanted to learn. Sitting alone wondering where the next paycheck is coming from.

This isn’t a warning. It’s a description of the terrain so you can pack accordingly.

The One Tool That Changes Everything When You're Stuck

In all my years as a professional creative, this is one of the greatest truths I’ve ever learned. I want to give it to you, because it has pulled me through more moments of uncertainty than I can count.

Whenever things aren’t working — whenever there’s a wall that seems too large to get over, whenever it feels like it’s never going to work, like it’s never going to happen — remember this:

There is something you are missing.

Not a lack of talent. Not a lack of worth. Not proof that it was never meant to be. There is simply some piece of understanding, some bit of knowledge, some tool you haven’t found yet — and you don’t yet know what it is. That’s all.

Everything that is holding you back from the life you want is something you don’t know. Not something you can’t do. Not something you’re not meant to have. Something you simply haven’t learned yet.

What you don’t know works silently. It doesn’t announce itself. It doesn’t leave a note explaining why the door won’t open. It just quietly holds you in place while you wonder what’s wrong with you. Nothing is wrong with you. You’re just missing a piece.

So when you hit that wall — and you will hit that wall — don’t ask yourself “is this even possible?” Ask yourself: “What don’t I know yet? What is the thing I’m missing?” Then go find it. Read it. Call someone who knows it. Take the class, watch the video, ask the question you’re embarrassed to ask. Find the missing piece.

Because once you find it, the wall disappears. And you’ll look back and realize the only thing that was ever standing between you and the next level was one thing you didn’t know.

Reckless Faith

What it takes — more than talent, more than timing, more than connections or luck — is reckless faith. Faith in yourself. Faith that if you push hard enough, long enough, and believe strongly enough, while developing every area where you’re already strong and tripling down on every area where you’re weak, the compounding will eventually tip in your favor.

Think about Rocky against Apollo Creed in that first fight. He wasn’t the favorite. He wasn’t supposed to still be standing. But every time he got knocked down, he got back up and asked for one more round. Not because he was sure he’d win. Because he refused to let the answer be no.

That’s the energy. Step into punch after punch after punch. Get knocked down, catch your breath, and step back in. Not reckless about the odds — reckless about your belief in what you’re capable of.

Off Course on Purpose

I wrote about my own journey through creative uncertainty in my upcoming book, 'Off Course on Purpose'. I wanted to show the actual road map — every detour, every near-miss, every moment I almost gave it up — not to gain sympathy for the struggle, but to prove that the path exists. No one else will follow my path exactly. But if I can show you a way that worked, and share the mindset and work ethic that allowed it to grow into something real, maybe you can take those same tools and apply them to your own journey.

This is for you. The ones who need it. The ones who get back up.