FIled: 3 min read
Okay, getting a little woo woo here. But I can’t help it. It wants to come out.
I don’t know how you’re feeling these days, but I’m feeling heavy. Like we’re right at the brink of something. And what I’m certain of, what I know is on the other side, is ease, grace, and beauty. Creativity wants to expand. It wants to be shared. And the people who carry it, the ones with new ideas who inspire us to be our best selves, who show up for others instead of taking from them, those are the people I want leading the way.
As I write this, there’s a lump in my throat.
Working with creatives is my North Star. It always has been.
One of my all-time favorite documentaries is I AM (2010), directed by Tom Shadyac. Yes, the same Tom Shadyac who directed Ace Ventura: Pet Detective and The Nutty Professor. He has a fascinating story, and if you have time to dig in, I genuinely encourage you to watch it. You can stream it free with a library card. And if you want a taste first, here’s Tom’s full Google Talk.
In the film, Tom asks: what is human-kind’s basic nature? Is it to cooperate or dominate? Compete or collaborate? Author Thom Hartmann says it plainly: the basis of nature is in cooperation and democracy. It’s in our DNA.
We are wired to give. We’ve just been distracted from it.
Here’s where I have to come clean.
For years I’ve been telling people about a scene from I AM that stayed with me. A child being given a single piece of fruit, and without hesitation, instinctively sharing it with the rest of his tribe. That image has lived in me. I’ve brought it up in conversations more times than I can count.
So when I sat down to write this post, I went back to find it. I watched the entire documentary again. Start to finish.
It wasn’t there.
Mandela effect? Director’s cut version? A different documentary I watched years ago? Most likely that last one. But here’s the thing: the message stuck. Deeply. And sometimes that’s enough.
What I found instead, while chasing down a scene that may or may not exist, was Ubuntu.
Ubuntu is a southern African philosophy. It translates roughly to “I am because we are.” Desmond Tutu, who appears in I AM, has a message on Ubuntu that stopped me cold.
Then I found The Spirit of Ubuntu Documentary, which follows how Ubuntu is practiced across 10 different African countries. I was waterworks before the three-minute mark.
What was supposed to be a quick blog post turned into a three-hour research spiral. I’m not even sorry.
We are living in a Take Society. And it is in our DNA to be in a giving one. Ubuntu isn’t a soft concept or a feel-good idea. It’s how humans are actually built. And the most sustainable businesses are built the same way.
Last week, two people came to me and told me how much working together had helped them.
I had a lump in my throat then too. I know, sounds weird. But I usually get a lump in my throat right before something is about to change, or come to fruition. Like this story I'm sharing with you.
Yes, starting a business is hard. I wrote about that here. But seeing an idea move from someone’s head into something real, something born into the world, it is worth every hard part. Every single time.
Creativity is your life force. Tap into it. The Heart Math Institute has spent decades researching the energetic connection between human beings, specifically how our hearts communicate with each other before our brains even register it. Everything is connected, everywhere, all the time. When you share your gifts, you change the people around you.
That connection starts with you. Intuition, a signal from self that radiates out to others, we all have it. How do you want to show up? I’m begging you to take the time to check in with yourself on that one.
Great Life’s Work helps creative entrepreneurs turn ideas into visible, trusted brands. That’s the work. Pulling the greatness out of others and helping it make sense in the world. It is, without question, my purpose.
What are your gifts?
Seriously. I’m asking.
If you’re a creative with an idea that hasn’t made it into the world yet, I’d love to hear about it. That’s exactly the work I’m here for.
