In response to ycombinator’s “Kill Hollywood” appeal, I propose:
We’re funnier / smarter / more creative than you think, so let’s get off our collective asses and start making shit. I bet everyone of us has, at one point, been involved in some sort of funny “oh my good, that should have been a SNL skit” moment. Or a seriously intense debate with someone where some good happened. Or you did something… well, you DID SOMETHING.
Get it out there.
Way back in 2001 I bought a domain name and started Buzzgrinder.com, a music blog with the tag line “music news + useless opinion.” I did it everyday. I wrote posts when no one was looking. I did that for years. YEARS. Finally in 2009 I got a break; a company wanted to buy it. Something I created was up for acquisition! Just like you read in the tech and nerd blogs! Payday! (Except I didn’t sell. No payday. OOPS.)
Look at that: NINE YEARS of writing blog posts. Nine years of posting tour dates, interviewing bands, reviewing CDs and making sure I had 5-12 posts up a day. All that before I got a break.
DOING that led me to get a well paying jobs as a web producer, and finally to launch a metal blog for AOL Music. Pretty cool stuff.
All that to say - DO something. The best time to have started your cool thing - your photography project, your jewelry buisness, your web design studio - was nine years ago. The second best time is right now.
I’ve been saying this for the past year and a half: if you want to be a photographer, start taking photos. Whatever you want to do, start doing it. I always tell that to writers, too. “How do I get a break?” Write. Write. Write. Write so much, with such tenacity, with such passion, with such heartbreak that you don’t just write, but you ARE a writer. Fall asleep with a pencil in your hand, or a long list of sssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss’s from falling asleep on your computer.
You don’t have to build the next Facebook, the next Twitter, or be the next Metallica or the next Lady Gaga. Just be the first you. Yea, that sounds all sports-cliche and rah-rah-rah and whatever else, but it’s true.
Spend time honing who you are, stop chasing “things,” be content and humble and freaking build something.
