maybe you were meant to read this…
Do it! Whatever it is, just do it! Also no, you didn’t miss a page. This is the beginning of this story, and I am happy you’re joining me for the ride. You may be wondering what I mean by “do it,” and I know what I mean, but I want to know what just came into your mind. What thought did you just have that made you go, “Maybe I was meant to read this…” Whatever that thought was, then do it.
There was a time that I needed to hear someone tell me to “do it.” I was in my last year of college, and the COVID pandemic had made finding internships in my field incredibly limited. I grew anxious because I knew I wanted to go into creative strategy, but I didn’t know how I could if I didn’t get the experience that companies crave. I didn’t have the internship that was practically impossible to get. I didn’t have the experience that my incomplete bachelor's made me ineligible for. I paced through life wondering if anyone would ever give me the chance to “do it.” Then I realized that anyone is me.
There are opportunities within each and every person on this planet to do the dang thing. To start the business. To pop the question. To embrace our uniqueness. We are all desperate for opportunities, but when opportunities present themselves, we let the semblance of doubt tell us the opposite. We let a lie block us from being our “anyone.” For me, that was the belief that running a business in college would be impossible. And furthermore, living off of a business would be something that I only saw in Jeff Bezos or Steve Jobs.
Those people didn’t look like me, and they weren’t photographers, so how was I supposed to step in shoes that weren’t designed for my feet?
There are three steps I took to become my own “anyone,” and this is an inherent gift we are all born with, so you are without excuse. The first step is to imagine. Be as persistent in imagining the best-case scenario as you are in the worst-case. There is no such thing as false hope, only false assumptions. When you let your imagination go to all ends of the spectrum, you will realize that the possibility of failure is one of a million outcomes to your reality.
The second step is to imagine, this time, on paper. Write it down. Run the Google search. Ask the “dumb” questions, and stop telling yourself they’re dumb. If you can scroll on a feed for thirty minutes, you can run a Google search for one. The world is literally your oyster when you realize how massive it is. So start exploring.
The third step is to build a paper airplane. Metaphorically, of course (or literally, if you’re a visualization type of human like me). Write it down, and execute. Let it fly. Find someone else who did it, and learn from their template while forging your own path. You can get to the same destination through multiple roads - theirs isn’t the only way.
There you have it. Be your own “anyone.” Build your paper airplane. Did I mention to do it?