Personal projects are often worth more than professional ones. What's stopping you?
It's all too easy to relegate our personal projects to the bottom of the pile until "the day job" is complete. The result? We nearly always end up having to leave creative, fun, new projects behind in the interest of ticking someone else's boxes, when those same personal projects could be the very innovation that make the difference.
Ji Lee was fed up with his life as an ad exec when he decided to engage the public in parodying that very same world, printing out 50,000 speech bubble stickers and placing them over ads around New York City. Over time, the public took the lead in inventing political or comical speech to make the parody. The ultimate parody in this project is, of course, that ad agencies used them to further promote their products. He spins a good yarn in his 99% video.
A personal project that took Ji Lee's name to the world and helped him find a seat as Director of Google's Creative Labs.
What's your personal project, and what's stopping you just getting on with it?
I enjoyed this post Ewan. thank you. Will share with others in Sydney.
Posted by: Martincahill | January 20, 2010 at 08:11 AM
Good post Ewan, thanks!
I see and take my business as very personal indeed, my main business is Seeded SEO (Search Engine Optimisation)
A constant quest for me is to make it more sustainable to be able to grow. I'm now actualising and changing my trajectory to a steeper ascent, a genuine case of "onwards and upwards" in all senses of the phrase, let us all reach for the skies!
I have a clearer direction and heading, as Obama said in a 1995 interview:
"You have to know where you've been, if you want to know where you're going."
Please follow my Seeded SEO Twitter for exciting announcements of my 'personal business' soon :]
Posted by: Sean Gerrie (SEO Specialist) | January 21, 2010 at 05:37 PM
I think Ji Lee had done a pretty good job on those stickers around new york!
Posted by: Social Network | February 02, 2010 at 11:53 PM