When I was about 8 or 9, I starred in a commercial for my uncle who was, and still is, a successful director and producer. He needed a young, Asian boy for a commercial he was shooting for a fancy new resort/hotel opening up somewhere in China, and my mom volunteered me.

Next thing I knew, my mom got me a talent agent who got me into casting calls, and I ended up being in a few more commercials and gigs. My classmates at school thought it was the coolest thing. I remember I brought a tape (yes, a VCR tape) of an ad I was in for the class to watch.

Truth was I kind of hated doing it. I didn’t like being in front of cameras, repeating lines over and over again. My mom can attest with the story of when I infamously asked the makeup girl, in between takes, whether we were almost done. I was still mic’d up, so it wasn’t as subtle as I thought. My mom gave me an earful about that one.

Ironically, I’m now ready to begin a career on the other side of the camera, not as the director or producer, but as the copywriter who comes up with the ideas. When you see an amazing ad, the one rare ad you don’t automatically hate, and ask, “who writes this stuff?” I want to be that guy. I wrote it.

Most people really hate advertisements. I can’t blame them. There are a lot of terrible ads out there. The problem isn’t just the quality of ads, the quantity of ads constantly competing for our attention doesn’t help me get very welcoming reactions when I’m asked what my major/career is. It’s not very glamorous.

What I love about advertising is that it combines my favorite passions — problem solving and creativity. Brands and businesses come to you with legitimate problems, and, as ridiculous as it sounds, they tell you to solve it by being as weird and creative as possible. Don’t believe me? Look at Old Spice. Their ads are about as weird and funny as they get, but they work. Old Spice became something your dad used to something every young man had to shower with. As an advertiser, you have the opportunity to shape culture and make what has never been a reality.

I never considered advertising as a career choice years ago because I never considered how much creativity it requires. It can be fiercely competitive when it comes to landing a job in an ad agency’s creative department, going up against plenty of other candidates with portfolios filled with their finest work. Intimidating would be an understatement. Creativity is the bread and butter of the industry.

When I talk to my peers and fellow aspiring advertisers about what exactly they want to do in the industry, most of them aren’t as sure as I am. Some will choose something safe, like account management or media planning, when I know they really want to say creative.

I said advertising isn’t a glamorous job, but the creative department is like the most beautiful of all the sisters within an ad agency. It’s like being the most popular amongst a group of nerds. (I might be a bit biased, and other departments will probably disagree with me, but trust me, it’s true.)

When I ask why they don’t want to pursue a position in the creative department, the answer is usually, “I don’t think I’m creative enough.” Personally, I think that is a huge lie and a big pile of crap. I just don’t buy it.

I don’t think creativity is something you either have or don’t have. It’s not that simple. When you say, “I’m not creative,” you’re really just saying that you have the capacity to be creative. Everyone is creative. I believe that 100%. Creative people just think and make connections much faster than those who say they “aren’t creative.”

I read a book called The Creative Process Illustrated by W. Glenn Griffin and Deborah Morrison. They sent blank canvases and a set of markers to Creative Directors in ad agencies across the country, asking them to illustrate their creative process when brainstorming their next big idea. The responses were published into the book.

What was clear was that no two illustrations were alike. Everyone had different ways to express how they eventually reached the promised land of great ideas. And although all the illustrations were different, what I realized was that the general idea was more or less the same — creativity is born from the collection of everything you’ve been exposed to.

That’s it. Being creative isn’t an inherent quality or a switch that some of us are lucky to have on (or unlucky to have off) at birth. I believe being able to make a connection from one seemingly-unrelated thing to another seemingly-unrelated thing is creativity. It’s not the other way around. You don’t sit down and say, “time to be creative!” and blast amazing, original ideas onto paper. It may seem that way, but the connections were made long ago. The more you soak up in your day-to-day life, the more capacity you have to make the connections that someone else might not.

One of my friends once asked me if it was possible for someone to become more creative. I believe it’s a certainty. “But how?” she asked.

If you want to become more creative, whether it’s because you want to pursue that creative position at the top ad agency, or it’s just because you think it’ll be beneficial to your own being, then take notes. Here is how you do it.

Live.

What? Yes, you read correctly. Don’t just exist. Don’t wake up and drag your feet through each day with a boring, monotonous routine. Live.

Do all the things you love to do. And when you’re done, do the things you’re afraid to do. Jump out of a plane with nothing but a parachute. Travel Europe with nothing but a backpack. Go into the wild with nothing but a knife. Find different perspectives. Accept no limits. Never settle and never stop learning. Always ask why. Ask the hard questions, not the easy ones. Break the rules and make new ones. Soak up everything you come across with the mindset that you’ll never see or do it again.

Live a life of excitement, wonder, and curiosity. They say curiosity killed the cat, but I bet the cat was pretty creative.

When you do these things for you and no one else, you’ll come to find that creativity is merely just a side effect of living life to the fullest.

Sounds cliche, but it’s true. I might not have liked being in front of the camera, but I have that experience for the rest of my life. And not only that, it’s also lead me to a career and industry I’m excited and passionate about.

Connections, you see?

So get out there. Live.