Ramen and Reading

17. What does it mean to be a professional?

Who are you doing the work for…

Prompt: Think about what it means to you to be a professional.

Then, think about your creative heroes again.

Did you pick them because they’re fully independent, obscure, tortured, rich, famous, popular, groundbreaking?.. What made them heroes?

@sabweld: Now we are being called a whiner for being a hobbyist.

Wow, this lesson was a huge slap in the face. Unfortunately for Seth, I THRIVE off being challenged, so this was a positive wake-up call because I like fires being lit under me (metaphorically speaking. Forest fires are still really bad). Thanks to Sabrina for taking the words right out of my mouth.

Now, onto the question at hand…

No More Heroes

These questions for “who inspires you” are always really tough for me because I draw nothing worthwhile from popular culture and it’s overvalued personalities. A lot of their fame and fortune comes from happenstance really, and these revered individuals continuing to be spoonfed their success offers no actionable life lessons worth emulating for me. (Investors are owners! Sounds like I’m perfect for Seth’s Bootstrapping Camp haha)

Just wanna take a quick moment to appreciate a few of the reals who take their lucky breaks and do good with it. Leonardo DiCaprio is a FANTASTIC actor and if you ever visit his social media pages, he never talks about himself. He only talks about the causes he wants his followers to invest in, namely nature conservation and human rights activism. He has captured my heart in more ways than one, and here is his twitter link here as proof –> https://twitter.com/leodicaprio

The Heroes We Don’t See

To me, true heroes are those who have achieved stealth wealth. My conditions for achieving stealth wealth are simple:

• Immensely proud of themselves and their work (loving yourself is a recurring theme I’m seeing in a lot of people’s posts around the workshop)
• Immensely humble and relatable, not caught up in themselves because of their work
• CONSISTENT <– when they say they will do things, IT WILL BE DONE. No exceptions, no false promises, no big talk with no walk.
• Drive their own success and aren’t hands and knees waiting for someone else to validate them. No matter how much you wealth and value you aggregate, if you aren’t instrumental in your own success, you are just a slave to someone else’s desires. Maybe just with a nicer birdcage.
• A Radiant Aura: You have a personality that makes people want to do better: for you, for themselves, and for the world around them.

The Old Guard

I’ve cited https://pro2.akimbo.com/t/reki-kawahara-and-a-world-of-swords/27597/6 in just about every response post, and guess what… I’m gonna do it again :smiling_imp:

So for a bit of context, Reki Kawahara is the creator of Sword Art Online, essentially my bible if I’m to not mince words here. He creates inside of the anime industry, which is renown to NOT properly compensate their creators, no matter how successful their franchises become (where the :dolphin: is this money going then? A question for another day…). Despite all this, Mr. Kawahara CONSISTENTLY puts out quality work, so he quite literally is not in it for the money. He just loves what he does so much. Drawing back on my criteria, here is why I adore him:

• He is immensely proud of his work and humbled that he has so many fans that adore his creations
• He is ashamed that he just doesn’t have enough time to create everything he wants to produce (AMAZINGLY CONSISTENT DESPITE THESE UNFOUNDED CLAIMS. Truly in love with himself and his work.)
• He is ever thankful to all his editors, publishers, and the like for spreading his completed works far and wide across the land (the radiant aura)

The New Guard

Sometime ago, I was perusing this series of youtube vidoes where a guy shadows Japanese everyday-men and women in their day jobs as a means to be grateful for the job I currently have. Sometimes it tries my patience, but it can NEVER be as bad as Japanese work culture. Like seriously. Avoid this place like the plague if you want to have a tolerable 9-5. Otherwise I will be visiting as a tourist as soon as the pandemic ends :)

Two videos caught me off guard as inspirational, and it DEFINITELY was not the jobs I was expecting.

Day in the Life of a Japanese Manga Creator

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3rKrTehORY&t=42s

I said that the anime industry is horribly predatory, right? Despite all this, one lone mangaka has found his niche while doing in his own unique way. Some of my favorite takeway from this video:

• he interned under four different mangaka for only 6 months each before opening up his own studio, taking the leadership principles he enjoyed from each workshop. He now has four assistants who have each been working under him for several YEARS, so he clearly has the radiant aura.
  • He also makes me ASHAMED that I am NOT looking for another job because I am so comfortable in the space I am in now…….. I’m gonna dust off my CV after I submit this post
• He draws on outside influences for a lot of the character designs (the current female fashion magazines just blew me away :joy:) , which is an unneeded but VERY much appreciated small detail that makes his works juuuuust a little bit more unique
• In the final segment of the video, the interviewer asks him what should a viewer should do if they want to be a succesful mangaka just like him:
  • The answer I was expecting: you can only do it if you have talent or spend years at a traditional art school
  • The actual answer: Draw. Right now. At this very moment. Stop watching this video and start drawing. If you don’t start towards yours dreams right now, when will you?

That last segment just

BLEW

ME

AWAY

It’s not a matter of where you are, who you were born to, or what talents you already have. There is only question that really matters, and it’s how much do you really want it?

Day in the Life of a Japanese Ramen Chef

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5pKw6flFZE

I’m already burnt out and have to write my daily today too… :tired_face: But I’ll leave on this note. This ramen chef just

BLEW

ME

AWAY

( I love abusing this notation.)

with just how PASSIONATE he was in his craft to create amazing ramen. Sometimes when I feel down and don’t have the inspiration to create anymore, I take a deep breath and remember the ramen guy.

We all can stand to be a little bit more like the ramen guy.

@homeroom11 @dragon @sabweld @angelatseng @michellebasey

and here are some Rs for Ramen! @robinwhitney @rebekahchamberlain @rikkilee