Find Your Professional Bliss & Career Success by Mixing Business, Creativity and Passion  

Having just attended my first SXSW in March in Austin, I was inspired by many compelling interactive sessions, most focused on how modern marketers can succeed by focusing on the idea of being authentic, engaging and empathetic. While these sessions brought new insights and actions for my marketing campaigns (I literally purchased Gary Vaynerchuk’s latest social media book Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook: How to Tell Your Story in a Noisy Social World in the Austin airport for my trip home), my overarching “career a-ha” moment was even bigger.

After day one, I began to seek out the sessions that purposely bring together professionals from varied backgrounds: artists, museum curators, actors, scientists, movie producers and corporate leaders, just to name a few. This convergence of professionals across practices is probably what makes SXSW so unique. And, if I’m like most busy professionals, I rarely find myself routinely in the position to engage with such varied industry leaders as they debate and discuss today’s biggest topics.

Seeking New, Daily Sources of Inspiration that Help Professionally

My big takeaway from these sessions is all about finding ways to bring art and passion back into our daily practices at work— to effectively mix business with pleasure to succeed. All of the truly accomplished professionals at SXSW talked about choosing a profession based on their passion—and then constantly finding ways to stay inspired to deliver great work. How many of us really do that?

Here’s one: Oscar-winning film producer Brian Grazer, co-author of the book A Curious Mind: The Secret to a Bigger Life, and probably one of the most successful film producers of the last thirty years (see Apollo 13, the Da Vinci Code, etc.), explained that he proactively seeks out interviews with a new expert in a completely unrelated field every two weeks. He typically does not have a firm plan for the purpose of the meeting—but many eventually inform his work in interesting and unpredictable ways. What a great idea! Who couldn’t benefit by trying that more often?

In between SXSW sessions, I was lucky enough to visit the Samsung Studio just in time for an interview promoting the new FX series, The Comedians, with its lead stars, Billy Crystal and Josh Gad. Billy Crystal talked about how— as he was celebrating turning 67 years old—it is important to work with people who inspire you and give you opportunities to do new things or approach things differently. It was really impactful to hear such an accomplished artist reiterate the importance of creativity and passion. Isn’t it rather elating to think that even at that stage of a highly-successful career, when many already consider retirement, you actually still love your craft and want to continue to learn?

Why Exhilaration is Good for Business

So, my thoughts on all of this: whether you are entering the job market now, still plotting a career path, or are accomplished in your space, I think there is an opportunity to view your work as art, and proactively seek inspiration.

All marketers likely already consider, on a regular basis, how they are presenting “their personal brand” and aim for consistency in that. However, I wonder how many of us think about the artfulness that we can bring to our work.

I’m happy with my decision to pursue a career in marketing, and I’m constantly challenged by the latest digital technologies. Especially in my B2B technology professional services world, the last five to ten years have brought tremendous changes that constantly challenge marketing best practices about ways to add value. As someone who embraces change, this makes it easy for me to keep finding new things to learn—in fact, it is hard to keep up!

So, while I enjoy crafting content and building integrated digital marketing plans, what I hadn’t consciously considered until now, is that this work is a form of art. All artists seek new, fresh ways of conveying an idea to inspire their audience. And, if you asked a fine artist to paint the same image ten times, they’d most likely refuse out of sheer boredom (or find new ways to do so, as Monet did with his haystacks).

We should all feel that way in our jobs as well. To produce good work that inspires, many of us probably could benefit by looking for new ideas from far-flung places, like Brian Grazer does, and seek out projects where we’ll be inspired to try new things and work with people who push us, as Billy Crystal does.

I enjoy oil painting, and every time I work in my studio or see the old work of masters or new innovative art, I’m struck by how much I want to learn and try. Until SXSW, I hadn’t seen a connection between painting and marketing. While I may never literally combine the two in my profession, they are both artistic endeavors that require passion in order to create and grow.

Fear-Based Career Choices Never Work

I found myself talking with an extremely intelligent young woman from France during a SXSW comedy performance. She explained that her passion was television, and that she wanted to be a producer. She was practically an encyclopedia of film and television knowledge and had an opinion and idea on every show and artist involved.

Surprisingly, however, she is enrolled in one of the top schools in France that is known for grooming world leaders—literally generations of presidents. The only problem is that she does not want to be a world leader. She exuded the energy and confidence that made me believe that she can achieve anything she sets her mind to. I tried to talk her into following her passion—and switching to film school. While that might sound risky, isn’t it actually a bigger risk to not follow your passions and interests and take the more conventional, “safe” path?

All of this reminded me of some very sage advice from Jim Carrey from a 2014 commencement speech he gave where he shared personal experience from watching his father pick the wrong career and explained that taking the safe path is often a fear-based decision, versus a practical one.

If you are passionate about your career choice, you are much more likely to generate compelling outputs—whether you are an actor, a designer, or a marketer. Aren’t all of these professions “art” for those with passion? To inspire your audience, you need to be inspired.

Written by:  Tiffany Stronsky, Marketing Director at TATA Consultancy Services (@Tiffstronsky)