Janet the Planet: Be Flexible with Your Dreams
Today I had lunch with a creative force to reckon with. She’s one of my managers and her real-life legal name is Janet the Planet. Corporate Powerhouse by day, fashion designer to rock stars by night, Ms. Planet is the shining example of “having it all.” I had been admiring her creative energy and positive presence my whole first week at work, so I asked her to lunch so she could school me in the ways of the wise. JTP dropped some knowledge on me regarding balancing the creative and corporate life that resonated with me:
“My biggest advice to you is to be flexible in your dreams.”
JTP’s exciting adventures included going to fashion school in London, starting her own fashion label, showing her line at Fashion Week three years in a row, and designing custom apparel for rock stars. It really sounded like a dream come true. And she did it all while holding down a 9-to-5. The opportunities popped up like those cute moles in the bop-em-on-the-head game—not because Janet is extra lucky but because she consistently made decisions that were consistent with her beliefs and because she was flexible in her dreams. If she had staunchly refused to work for “the man” she would have never had the stable cash flow to supplement the unpredictable payments of the fashion world. She would likely not have health insurance or a 401(k) either. She brings her design skills to the process of innovating new candies and her marketing skills likely help her pitch her services to her high-profile clients.
For the last few months I grappled with whether I should dive headfirst into trying to “make it” as a writer and tv personality or whether I should seek balance and stability by holding down a day job. Janet the Planet made a great case today for balancing entrepreneurship (going it completely alone) and intrapreneurship (being an entrepreneur within an organization). “I was trained as an engineer and I wanted to be getting an engineer’s wages!” she said, referring to the paltry wages she was being offered after graduating from fashion school. “So I worked a full-time job and designed as my other job.”
I’ve really enjoyed my marketing internship so far. I get to combine the analytical skills I learned this year with the creative skills I’ve been building up my whole life, and this job has given me a certain degree of groundedness that JTP says day jobs often do. “When you have a ‘real job’ while pursuing a creative industry on the side, you don’t have that same level of desperation about you. You are not like ‘This has to work. I need this to pay my bills.’ You have a more welcoming energy when you approach people.”
My lunch with JTP encouraged me to be more open-ended with my dreams for my future. I know I’ll always be passionate about writing and being in the spotlight but who knows what form that passion will take? I want to be flexible in my dreams so that I leave enough space for those pop-up opportunities that appear in our lives suddenly and can just as quickly disappear. I want to be flexible so I can seize opportunities as they come to me, and prepared enough—professional and personally—so that I can take full advantage of them.
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