“I’m Not Doing Things To Be Inspiring…”
by Sheldon Rocha Leal

I heard this quote a month ago whilst watching a documentary series on Netflix entitled “Inside Bill’s Brain” about the Iconic Businessman, Entrepreneur, Billionaire and Creative, Bill Gates. The quote made me reflect on what motivates people to do what they do. People are too often concerned about what they are going to get out of a situation, without considering the bigger picture and the impact of their actions. The motivation behind what people do and sentiment with which people approach a situation will influence their eventual output. If the motivation is selfish, the result will be mediocre and superficial. On the other hand, if the motivation is honourable and well-intentioned, the reward will outweigh the initial investment.
Whilst Bill Gates does not live his life to inspire others, he rather invests his time in research, enquiry, consultation and determining the merits of a cause before making a final decision. By making well-informed decisions, he inevitably creates aspirational products and makes informed decisions as to which causes to support, resulting in aspirational and successful endeavours. As the old saying goes “the cream always rises to the top”. What this means is that people will naturally be drawn to you and what you do if it’s good…there is no need to inspire people.

Relating to awards and the reception of awards in the creative practice, whilst I understand that people need to be rewarded for their contributions, I am generally opposed this type of activity in the creative space. Creativity and creation is a solitary process in which one competes with oneself to better one’s creative output. Awards are an external locus of appraisal that results in an externalization of the creative process resulting in a loss of focus on the end goal, which is the enhancement of one’s own creative product and creativity. If the focus of one’s attention is on being better than somebody else, then there is a lack of investment in one’s own betterment. This is counterproductive and anti-creative. That aside, however, as I said earlier if the motivation is honourable and well-intentioned, then there’s essentially nothing wrong with awards.
Let me illustrate this with some examples:
Greta Thunberg

Whilst I’m not the biggest fan of the activist, I do feel that she has made some worthwhile contributions. Essentially Greta’s overall output is a symptom of our times. Her reductionist and populist philosophies are ill-informed and do not consider the greater nuances of International Geo-Politics. We are living in a populist society in which people become famous for being famous and there is generally no substance in the majority of people we look up to in popular culture these days. People are also generally highly reactionary and do not consider all the merits of a case before making a statement. That aside I was recently reading an article about Greta Thunberg and I was struck with a statement she made. When approached by the Nordic Council to accept an environmental award, she opted to decline it stating that the climate movement needed people in power to start listening to science and not awards. This tells me that her intentions are honourable, they may not be well-informed, but they are honourable.
Madonna

Another example comes from the music world. Getting a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame is considered a status symbol in the entertainment industry. If you are “someone” in entertainment, you have a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The process of being nominated is quite harrowing and lengthy. A candidate needs to be nominated by a member of the committee and needs to attain more than 50% of the committee vote in order to be granted the honour. Madonna, however, does not have a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Yet she is the biggest selling female recording artist of all time, having shipped over 300 million records worldwide, is the biggest touring artist of all time, having generated nearly $2billion in ticket sales and possess 22 Guinness World Records, making her the ideal recipient of the honour. So has she ever been nominated? Well actually in 1990 (29 years ago) she was selected to receive the star but turned it down stating that she didn’t need or want the recognition.
Jean-Paul Sartre

My final example. The Nobel Prize in literature is one of the most prestigious accolades in the literary world. What makes this prize even more valuable is that it comes with a $1.1million cheque and a gold medallion. Jean-Paul Satre was a famous philosopher, author and literary critic, who passed away in 1980. The prolific essayist and playwright famously wrote the screenplay for The Crucible in 1957. In 1964 he was informed that he would be getting the Nobel Prize in Literature for his prolific contribution to the art form. He declined the award stating that “a writer should not allow himself to be turned into an institution”.
Conclusion
The value of an award is reliant on you and your motivation behind getting it. If the intention is honourable and well-intentioned then the award will be worth something and will enhance your valuable contributions, but if the intention is self-aggrandizement and egotistic, then you have failed on your mission to becoming a better artist and creative. Therefore don’t concern yourself with inspiring others or making a major contribution to your artform, rather focus on being the best you that you can be and in so doing you will generate a desirable output that will inexorably inspire people. It is therefore left in your hands as to what it is you are trying to achieve with an award and the attainment of an accolade…
