Stop Waiting for Permission
Summary
The cavalry isn't coming." A straphanger shares advice about taking initiative in creative fields, urging artists to stop waiting for permission and create their own opportunities. Don't just open doors for yourself, they tell Kareem. Hold them open for others too. The conversation touches on making things you want to see exist in the world and building your own systems instead of waiting for gatekeepers. It's a rousing call to action that gets at something artists need to hear: if not you for you, then who for you? The energy is infectious, the message clear.
Full Transcript
So what's your take? Start, just do it. The moment is now. 100% agree.
In the Arts, and you get this—I feel like you operate in a similar way. It's such a permission-based industry. It's like, do not wait for permission.
Rip that door open for yourself, and then hold the door open for your friends and fellow artists. I think that this is very good advice, and I think a lot of people need to hear it, because a lot of people open the door and then they close it right behind them. You are the maker of your own reality.
And if you don't see something in the world that you think should exist, go for it, baby. People forget that you're supposed to make things that you want to see in the world. And I think that that's true of your work, and also of, like, the systems that you exist in as an artist.
Like, you can—you can start your own thing. You can do it today. The Duplo Brothers have a thing that they say.
That's the Cavalry isn't coming. Exactly. If not you for you, then who for you, baby?
If not you for you, then who for who? What? What?
If not you for you, not you for you, then who for who? That right there is a great take.