Push, Pull .... Release!
Current economic landscape? Meet the circus.
Currently challenging myself to write about the push-and-pull of creativity and entrepreneurship; art vs capitalism; artistry vs product for 30 days.
If this is something you’re thinking about, then I want to hear from you!!
Yesterday, I was at a networking event with a lot of smart, talented people who have contributed to things that you probably use everyday.
And in a few conversations, we agreed how businesses are making some really REALLY unimaginative decisions right now, which is why the job market is shit.
This isn’t the first time I’ve heard this. In intimate 1:1’s, I talk with service providers, solotrepreneurs, and job seekers about how businesses are looking for the MUST HAVEs and LIKE-to-HAVEs in their wish list. That’s because businesses thrive in certainty. That’s how you know to make investments that guarantee in X months, you will have Z dollars - YAY!
But we are in uncertain times, and the push-and-pull of that uncertainty means that business leaders are looking for solutions with obvious connections to the outcomes they need. Meaning:
If this person did this thing for my competitor and got this outcome, agree 💰!
If this solution did this thing for these companies similar to me, then OK 💰!
Anything in the grey zone is just too big a risk in these weird times. And I get it; when I wear my CEO hat for my little consultancy, I am quite unimaginative, too. 😐
That’s partly why I launched this challenge.
I just needed to do something different.
There are so many things happening right now as I type this sentence that go against my business training:
What is the ROI of this output?
How do this fill my pipeline?
After 30 days, will I have work and clients and money coming in?
Writing is something that so often gets pushed first out of the system; it’s a lot of labor and effort. Wouldn’t it be better to focus your efforts on something else?
🤷♀️
And now, I must tell you about the hair suspension acrobat.
I’m at Cirque Does Broadway by Troupe Vertigo, and one of the acts was this:
My pals and I were like 😱 😱 😱 😱 😱 😱 😱 😱 😱 😱 😱 😱 😱 😱 😱 😱 😱
And during intermission, we discussed all the possible physics that might be required to do a feat like that. Perhaps, just maybe, the aerialists needed:
hair of a certain length and thickness
to spin a lot since that made them more weightless
special knots to relieve the tension on their scalps
We just did not know, and so I went home and used the Internet to research. And that’s when I discovered it was very mundane and yet magnificent.
Mundane: Hard work. Training. Daily practice. Discipline stuff. Duh.
Magnificent: In order to hold her body weight by her head, the artist specifically needed to strengthen muscles we rarely think about: neck, scalp and hair follicles!
Ok now here’s the push and the pull…
In my research, the hair aerialist (at the end of this post) says:
I cannot do the same thing every day because I am not the same every day.
I use that to make my act more real. So it’s not just choreography and repetition every day. It makes it more fresh.
To me this is the essential paradox between business and art. Business works toward uniformity and automation because that allows them to scale services, serve more customers, and accrue greater profits.
Art works toward spontaneity and freeform. Because that allows the artist to find new muscles and ways to express, interpret, and perform their craft for the benefit of an audience. They cross paths at that moment of performance, and all of left transformed because of it.
For business, true innovation comes when teams are allowed to flex, stretch, and explore—finding muscles and movement that they never realized in their unique environments and tools. Smart businesses understand that a person is an investment, and that the expert/employee/human understands the muscles needed to perform the task daily or utilize a tool in ways unique to the environment.
Several times over the last two years, I have begged clients to just “let me be free” for 24 - 48 hours. That’s because the project is stymied. The stakeholders are paralyzed by indecision. Nothing is moving, and the SOW was written rigidly. Everyone wants to make sure they are not overinvesting or overpaying. But in that little space of freedom, I break all those barriers—easily, quickly, and with magnificence.
For art, 100% freeform is like being in zero gravity—unless you have something to push against, you are just a lifeless, floating object. The world, yourself, your job, your context, puts a frame around how you engage with your craft and what you create. As much as an artist just wants to do their art in peace, they need the push-and-pull to find spontaneity and flow in strange, provoking and gasp-inducing ways.
Businesses might not understand that their creatives and customers are never the same person daily, but that is something that humans bring to their lives and decisions. That is the engine that allows them even in a small mundane tasks to make life fresh—or art!
So maybe that’s what this challenge is for me?
Or for you?
Strengthen invisible muscles and give ourselves permission to be free?
As a business owner and an artist—I hope it will lead to something that will make everyone—myself included—gasp!
Want to support my work?
You can also buy me a one-time coffee, instead.
You can also also share this post with another person.🙋🙋🏾♀️
Sarah, you've highlighted a profound tension.
Business-oriented individuals—those focused on commercials, productivity, or output—seek reliability, predictability, and consistency to plan effectively and feel secure.
Sometimes, business leaders request innovation or creativity from their teams. However, when we are too focused on business, creativity and innovation are stifled. True innovation emerges when we allow ourselves the time, space, and freedom to be creative, to experiment, to fail, to learn, to adapt, to be authentic, and to embrace our humanity—none of which are reliable, predictable, or consistent.
The hair suspension artist illustrates this tension, showing how we can embody both creativity and business, though they remain distinct, not occurring all at once. Humanity requires both to flourish.