STREET CAT OR HOUSE CAT

We seem to be inundated with people telling us how to lead our lives at the moment, how to be more productive, how to be fitter, how to eat better, sleep better, think better. But behind all these people telling you how & why & when, are algorithms, pay walls, likes, comments, the new dopamine hits of digital value and the cash incentives of sponsors, subscribers and investors. Most things can be classed as fads and can be tried, tested and forgotten, somethings stick, the ones that do stick seem to have always called you, always known your name and always sat within you waiting to be revealed. Its like love at first sight. Graphic Design came to me late, I had no idea what it was, or that it was something that could be pursued even though it feels like its around us all twenty four seven. My epiphany came in the form of Andre the Giants face and not any Andre the Giants face, one that had been hand cut out and spray painted onto giant paste-ups by a man called Shepherd Fairey. I can’t even remember where I first saw it, maybe Lowdown Magazine, Maybe on a wall in West London, but it weirdly touched me in a way I couldn’t describe, I had no affiliation with the image or the artist. But what I did see was whatever Shepherd was doing with Andre, I could do too, it represented opportunities and a million ideas rang into life as soon as I clapped eyes on that giant black and white face. It was also presented in a way that was within my within grasp, that day, that week, that month. I could hijack my mums computer, get a cracked copy of Illustrator and set about trying to replicate the feeling I got from seeing that and hope to give the feeling to someone else with my own work, one day.  From that moment on I didn’t need anyone to tell me what to do, how to do it, when to do it. I was the wind in my own sails and whether my boat was a pedelo or a billionaires yacht I was gonna try and sail it as far and fast as I could. I had no training, no YouTube back then, I felt like a pirate, just me on my own trying to decipher the illustrator tool bar like it was hieroglyphics.

This I think is true with everyone, everyone has a calling, my brothers is to make beautiful buildings and habitats to live, my mums was to make delicious food and mother & nurture (kids and animals gather around her naturally), my Dads was to write and make changes by his great power with words. My girlfriends is teaching and helping people find their way when they’re lost. Something lives in us that fights to get out, the trick is to unearth it, water it and help it grow.

Entrepreneurship shouldn’t be forced on people as if it all your talents and loves should be commodified, boxed up and marketed. A lot of peoples talents should be done for love and for themselves. When it comes to starting a business I think you are either a street cat or a house cat, none are better than the other, they are just natural ways of being. The house cat is happiest when the sailing is smooth, the pay check is the same week in - week out with hopefully gradual growth, the tax and national insurances is deducted first. The business is well managed and the expectations and job description standardised so you can tell how most days will look. Not saying there won’t be stress, growth, demands and a few crazy days. But things above you or below you can be delegated and any problems there is a phone call to HR. Some people climb the wall in these environments, as soon as the office door closes they look for escape routes, their minds wander and form ideas, they doodle, tap and dream of a life outside the workplace. They’d rather the unknown, continuous cycle of victory and failure, the feast and famine, the midnight bookkeeping, the working for less than minimum wage because the idea is theirs, they know they will eventually unlock the door, break down the walls or they will die trying. These are the street cats and as any actual cat owner knows, its best to know the cats nature before you try to keep them in a box.

Personally I’m the latter, a bonafide street cat, I didn’t know this was may nature as a kid I was quiet and contented, I always had a picture in my mind of working for a company, hopefully with my own office. But the winds of time blow you in all sorts of directions  especially when you fall off the conveyer belt of education.  Tried as I might to get a job, I could only hold down the temporary ones, I was the waiter, the steward, the kids entertainer, the usher, the bar man, the check-out kid, the cat litter factory worker. With rejection letters stacking up from creative agencies and graphic designers there was only one thing left on the table for me, run the music events, so I could design the flyers and fly posters that I wanted and spread them throughout the city. The street cat got let out and I haven’t gone back in for almost thirty years.