Passions

Maui, HI on an all expenses paid trip courtesy of being a great banker

On a recent phone call with a friend something came up that I challenged. Like most creative folks, there is what they love to do, their passion, their creative work and there is what they do for money. A lot of creative folks have a way to make money, a 9 to 5 job, and they have what they align themselves with.

If you were to ask me what I did, I would say that I am a photographer. I am not the best photographer and to some calling myself a photographer is blasphemy because, gasp, I might on occasion take a photo in auto-mode. Oh the humanity. But I get the most creative satisfaction in taking my camera out and capturing what I capture. In reality, on paper, I am a banker. I have more combined experience as a banker than I do any other profession. I have worked in banking and finance for close to a decade. At one point I would have called myself a banker loudly and proudly, despite the fact that I also would occasionally get the photo gig.

I was a banker when I was hitting on all cylinders, making things happen, had creative freedom to go after the clients I thought had more potential and not because they were geographically close to where my office was. In 2010, my first year at my last bank, I was pounding it out. To some looking in from the sidelines, it would have appeared I took a relaxed approach to the job, that I didn't take it seriously, and early on (like the first week I was there) I had people who were subordinates call HR for various reasons. I was always relaxed because I was confident, I was making sales, and my revenue sheet was adding up, and complaints about me were superficial like the time I high-fived a customer who happened to be 85 years old. I wasn't the "banker" most people imagined and because of the age disparity I might have rubbed people the wrong way. Through all the growing pains of a new type of manager my assistant manager and I were making bonus dollars and were at the top of most rankings. I did all this without a direct supervisor, because a competitor scooped him up. I had no one up my butt telling me what to do or looking at minutia like papers in a binder designed to create busy work or force someone, who is not comfortable with that type of organization, to comply with what they [the boss] are comfortable with. I had creative freedom, I was making things happen, and most of all, I was happy. I was a banker and proud to say it. 

I was at the top, the Pinnacle you would say. I loved the rewards of going on an all expenses paid trip to Hawaii with my wife and coming home with $1100 more than when I left. 

That was the only time I would have said I was a banker. I was creatively satisfied because I was allowed to be creative in my approach to things. Then they finally hired a manager to manage us and the hammer came down. Everything I hated happened. A prescribed way of doing things. I wasn't happy and it showed. Some big companies have a way of turning their genuinely creative workforce in boring lifeless robots; but I digress. In the end I was told that I am no longer a banker, at least for this bank. 

But if you say that you are one thing, like a musician or a photographer or a film maker, and you have a job that you make money doing like banking or real estate or landscaping and you are the best at that, and you tell me you don't love what you are doing, I say bull crap. 

To be the best at something you have to love it. Whether or not you believe it, you love it. To be the best takes focus, it takes time, and why would you commit that much time to being the best if you hated the job? Money only satisfies so far.

For what ever reason creative people feel the need to lessen their passion for their paying gig in order to bolster their creative street cred. You can be a musician and the best insurance agent. You can be a photographer and an amazing banker. You can be one of the best artists and graphic designers in the world and still be one of the best all around utility-players at a restaurant. And yes, you can like both without losing your creative credibility.