Inspiration: That Blank Piece of Paper Could Start a War Between 50 Cent and Ja Rule
Jess Wheeler is Associate Creative Director at Fenton Stephens.
He’s also the Vic AWARD School Head.
One of the defining attributes of a great creative is resilience. Sure, we get to do a lot of cool shit, like spend 8 days in New York on a shoot with an NBA Hall of Famer than ends up putting you in a Manhattan hospital (buy me a beer and I’ll tell you that story), but for the most part we live a life of perpetual rejection. Of brutal criticism. Of crippling self-doubt.
This is due to a vast majority of the creative energy we expend being torn to shreds, homoeopathically diluted or sentenced to death by a guy in a beige room being paid $50 and a can of coke for his opinion on a three-frame storyboard. And that takes an emotional toll. It’s heartbreaking. Especially, when some of those around us won’t ever quite understand what went into it.
And the only way to overcome all of this is to find a way to go back and draw from the well of inspiration again. And again. And again.
This takes on different meanings for different people, but for me, what I find eternally inspiring is the simple fact that we all contain infinite possibility within us. Yeah, I know, it sounds like a corny motivational line from a fantasy movie that an elf queen would say to the 3 poor sods she’s sent out on their own to find an enchanted dagger to save the realm from an evil wizard leading an army of blood thirsty orcs.
But it’s true.
There’s nothing more exhilarating and terrifying than a blank page.
A never-ending void synchronously swirling with failure and brilliance. That blank page could end up leaving a permanent dent in the world or crumpled in a wastepaper bin. I don’t know about you, but I can’t not be inspired by that.
We live in a time where anyone, quite literally anyone, can release an idea into the world and ‘see what happens’.
And that ‘what happens’ could be something quite unimaginable.
I’ll give you an example. In 2016, I started the meme ‘Trump Googles’ (an offshoot of the Australian political satire twitter account @GovGoogles I started a few years prior). You’ve probably seen variations of it floating around the internet. It was basically a satirical take on what stupid shit Donald Trump might be googling. Here’s an example if you haven’t seen it before.
The intention of this idea was simply to provide comic relief to others who were experiencing similar frustrations with the current political climate. The account quickly went viral across the globe and was liked, followed and shared millions of times. I even received DMs from a bizarre range of celebrities and media personalities.
This alone was a pretty amazing outcome. Something for the folio. Job done, you might think.
What’s interesting about the time in history in which we live is that all of us possess the power and platforms to create ideas that infiltrate and influence culture. But, once we do, we lose control of those ideas. And that’s where things can get truly incredible. Or insane, depending on how you look at it.
One morning I woke up to my phone bouncing around like a pneumatic drill on a trampoline.
Just blowing up with notifications and messages. I couldn’t figure out what the hell had happened. Then I discovered it.
50 Cent had posted a Trump Google making fun of Ja Rule. This stupid meme I’d created had now dragged me into one of the most infamous rap beefs of all time. Billboard, XXL and Complex ran articles about it. In my teens and 20s, I used to make hip hop music, and would’ve dreamed to have ended up in those publications.
And now I’d done it. With a fucking Donald Trump meme.
But it didn’t end there. The Trump Googles meme was being appropriated en masse, which was at times frustrating, but like I said before, once an idea permeates culture you can’t control it. You may or may not have watched a Netflix doco centred around notorious content thief Josh Ostrovsky, aka ‘The Fat Jew’, called ‘The American Meme’. Those that have, may have noticed this.
Yep. That’s an example of the type of content he stole. A ‘Trump Google’.
So, now this silly little idea of mine had travelled the world, entrenched itself into global political discourse, reignited a rap beef and ended up in a Netflix documentary.
And funnily enough, that’s not even the most beautiful part.
As Trump Googles hit peak popularity, it ended up being printed out and plastered onto placards and used as a symbol of protest across the US. Here’s one from the Women’s March in Charlotte.
It wasn’t my ‘Instagram meme project’ anymore. It was a vehicle for people across the world to protest racism, fascism and sexism. Incredible. All of that other shit was cool, don’t get me wrong, but this, THIS is what can drive you to go back again, and again, and again. I’m not saying you shouldn’t feel the hurt. And the pain. And the rejection. That’s real, and you should. So, by all means, be jaded for a moment. Be cynical for a minute. But make sure to purge it from your system, and go back again.
This started from nothing. Was turned into something, then once released into the world – became everything.
And you don’t have to overthrow a government, you might come up with an idea that inspires people all over the world to carry toilets and wheelbarrows full of Slurpees out of 7/11s like James Orr and Elle Bullen did. You might get a statue of Nicky Winmar built outside of Optus Stadium like Alex Wadelton and Aaron Tyler did. You might come up with an idea that is so big that once you release it – it becomes everyone’s idea.
And that’s where you have to be willing to relinquish control. So often, as creatives, we hold on to our ideas. We clench them tight to our chests. We ‘protect them’.
But from what?
What good is an idea that never sees the light of day?
You have to push the bird out of the nest to see if it can fly. You have to let go.
You have to see if and how other people connect with your idea. Like it. Share it. Love it. Hate it.
Smile. Laugh. Cry. Feel something from it.
If it dies, it dies.
Give life to another.
We’ve all got these ideas inside of us. Because they are us. They’re human truths waiting to be discovered.
So, if you’re lacking in inspiration, go back to that blank piece of paper.
Every great idea the world has ever seen started there.
But rather than feel the weight of emptiness, feel the weight of possibility.
Stare it down, take a deep breath, and see what you can turn it into.
