Have you ever envied a profession not by the amount of money it makes but by how clear the pathway to be in that profession is? I’m a 21-year-old guy from Denver, CO struggling to figure out how to get from point A to point B in the creative field and how to keep my morals and beliefs in tune with my decision making.

I’ve realize that their is no exact route in how to get to where you want to be as a creative as oppose to being a doctor per say. Doctors, lawyers, etc. have the luxury to follow guidelines to acquire the career they want. I’m not saying it’s easy to become any of those things but they have this lane to where the finish line is visible. On the other end of spectrum, as a creative, there are multiple ways to achieve what you want to. I say multiple because in every creative their is a different story to how they got to where they’re at. Whether they utilized a social platform, went to school for that, or received a consignment deal from somebody already recognized. Which leads me to talk about the only guideline I’ve realized their is in the creative field, networking.

In the position I’m in I’ve come to take notice in a lot of things that I used to be told that I was so naive to. The biggest one being is that “What matters the most is who you know.” Of course this implies to every career field but I have noticed that 95% of it implies in the creative field. Now, maybe that’s a broad statement but it’s what it feels like. It feels like that because mostly everyone I have encounter in Denver that wants to do something creative doesn’t care about who you are and what you’re about, it’s mostly “What can you do for me.” It’s a bummer because it seems to be that Networking is a priority guideline to get to where you want to be in this field. It’s inhuman like to treat somebody as a connection before a human being itself. That’s why I believe that the this guideline is self proclaimed and that there is a way around it, simply by being a good human being and understanding people are not a pathway of some sort.

Coming to a conclusion that being in the creative field and quote on quote making it should only come so organically by talent to me. It’s a struggle to figure out the next step but that itself comes with the title of being a creative and resolving out any issues. By far the only self proclaimed guideline I know of is to pick my Q’s right by networking but that’s breaching my morals because when I meet somebody the first thing in my mind isn’t

“This person is going to be a great connection.”

Stay authentic.

-Alfredo Contreras