A doodle that turned into a brand
When boredom inspires adventure
Are you sure? But you’ve never done this before? Won’t you be lonely? What if you run out of money? Are you having an early mid life crisis? What if you can’t pay your bills? Just give it a few months you’ll like your job more.
What if you fail?
It’s 2016. I’m sitting at my desk, which to most people means there’s some hard work going on. I’m doodling. The office buzzes around me with chatter and people clattering away on their keyboards looking busy, getting on with their day. This would usually be me, beavering away as a motivated person, the kind that likes to get shit done. The million ideas a minute kind of dedicated employee desperate for more budget (that i’ll never get) to do more. But after a decade of working for others my mind increasingly wandered and motivation waned. I could usually get everything I needed to do done in record time which should have paved the way for creative thinking and new ideas. But with nowhere to go, and no resource to make those creative ideas come true, the doodling began.
Come that reliable hour of 17:30 on your average Friday as people started piling out of the office like clockwork, hurriedly hopping into their cars whilst chatting about the BIG plans they had for the weekend. “It’s good weather this weekend, gotta make the most of it!”
Whilst battling with the notion of simply, “living for the weekend,” I looked down and realised I’d spent the better part of an hour sketching a Maori fishhook.
What’s a Maori fishhook?
As a part New Zealander (and secretly someone who wishes they were 100% from the land of that cute little bird) I’ve always had a love for greenstone and designs with meaning.
So what’s the fishhook? Often cut into greenstone the fishhook (also known as a Hei matu) stands for prosperity and safe passage over water, which considering I’ve spent the better part of my life on or near boats, this seemed somewhat apt.
However I couldn’t help but wonder whether I was somewhat failing on the prosperity part. Having been restless most of my life, underpaid and in need of too much self motivation I couldn’t shake the idea that time could be spent more wisely.
The next day without a blink I decided to send my rough little sketch over to a friend in graphics, a week later and bang, there it was. My logo.
Making a logo does not make you an entrepreneur.
Now I can imagine many people get to this stage. But let me tell you, it’s easy to get the balls to go out there and have a doodle turned into a logo, but to go the whole hog, quit your job and say hello world?!! That’s a whole other ball game.
Now, here’s something people forget to tell you when you’re growing up. Surround yourself with the kind of people you want to be and they will help mould you as you grow. Thankfully my boyfriend Kees just so happens to be one of those people. Six months after talking-the-talk and not walking-the-walk he gave me a much needed kick up the ass.
I went to work, I quit my job.
To find out what that was like read my other blog, “The day I quit my job, what they don’t teach you at school.”
So there I am with a fishhook logo, a website, one client and 8k in the bank. How do you go from here to quadrupling your savings, doubling your spare time and tripling your creativity? Well, that comes in my next blog. But for now I will leave you with this.
Sometimes the best ideas just happen, if you give yourself the luxury of not always needing to know what the outcome will be, you may be surprised where you end up. When I first started Greenstone Creative I thought I was going to be a drone pilot taking photos of expensive houses.
I’m now a dedicated storyteller building a network of creatives who work remotely, faster, harder and smarter than anyone i’ve ever known, and they’re making more money simply for doing what they love. And what’s the best part of all this?
It’s only just beginning.
“Build your dream, if you don’t someone will hire you to help build theirs” Tony Gaskins
Hannah Cotterell, Founder, Greenstone Creative
