Creator vs Corporate
9 things I wish I knew when I quit my job to become a creator
One unique thing about me is that I spent ~8 years in corporate America (as a management consultant/product manager) before becoming a creator.
As I contemplated quitting my job and going full-time, I had a list of expectations about how things might go.
There were several aspects of being a full-time creator I was completely wrong about.
For those currently in the corporate world and considering making the jump, this is a list I wish I read before quitting.
Btw, most of these things are framed in the negative (from the creator POV). I find there are lots of obvious things that make being a creator great, but few talk about the drawbacks/challenges.
⚖️ | The comparison trap - Corporate jobs are easier to win when you’re competing against a small pool. With some talent and high effort, you can easily outperform everyone. Creators are competing with a massive pool of the best in the world. There is always someone bigger and better than you. It becomes easy to feel bad about yourself when you always look up and see someone swimming faster
🧑🎨 | The Artist’s Gap - The Artist’s Gap is a framework I use to describe the distance between your current skills and where you want your output to be. In a corporate job, being a beginner with no skills is actually baked into the model. It’s accepted and encouraged. As a creator, being a beginner with no skills prevents you from getting where you want to go. The bigger the gap, the worse it feels
👁️ | Identity lags ability - In the corporate world, you’re given your identity on day 1. When you’re in consulting, after your first day, you know what you are…a consultant. Most people find comfort in a set identity. They know their skills will come, so for corporate employees, ability lags identity. For creators, it’s the opposite. True identity comes from skills/ability. When you have none, as most beginners often don’t, you feel lost and confused. As a creator, identity lags ability
🥲 | It’s lonely working alone - In the corporate world, you have a team and interact with lots of people on a daily basis. And while this is probably a net-negative on productivity, it’s a lot of fun. As a creator, you’re often on your own. It’s a very lonely journey that most people can’t relate to
🫨 | Feedback works differently - Corporate jobs have structured feedback windows and formats (biweekly calls, semiannual reviews, annual promotions, fixed leveling cycles, etc.). Creators get almost zero feedback in the beginning when posting to small audiences…very hard to know if you’re “doing well”
🔦 | There is no off-switch - Corporate jobs have set on/off hours. This makes it easy to plan to life around work. Creator jobs are always on, and when off, you could be on because someone else probably is
🏋️♂️ | Everything falls on you - Corporate jobs have lots of other people to go to when you don’t know how to do things (IT for tech support, HR for tax, etc.). Beginner creators wear all hats, both on the art and business sides
⏰ | Time management games - In a corporate job, your schedule is often determined for you, driven by set meetings and asks with relatively predictable time requirements to complete (e.g., I have these three things to do and I think they’ll take me 8 hours). Creators could be doing anything, want to do everything, but only have enough time to do a small set of things each day. Most of these things they have never done before, so the time requirement is unknown
🎰 | Political games vs skill games - In the corporate world, you’re mostly optimizing for political games. If you position yourself with the right people above you in the right ways, you’ll get rewarded. In the creator world, the market decides who wins based on who makes the best stuff. This is directly mapped to skills. The only way through this is by actually getting good at things.
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