I’ve been inspired by a number of things, all happening to me over the last month in fact, to make Cautious Train a reality. One of which I’m going to go into briefly here.
I went to my local employment authority a while back, with a grand plan in my head to start my own home Candy Bouquet business (because that was the only thing I could come up with on what I will now call #mostuninspiringmomentofmylife). So off I trot, with my latest scheme in full swing, to find out exactly what they're going to do to make this work. I spend a few grim minutes playing away on the "computers", where I'm convinced the previous occupant had to have been a 5 year old struggling with a melting ice cream cone, then I'm called in to meet my assigned officer. What follows is a swift and brutal assault on my ingenious new life plan. Thank. God.
- me: I want to run a candy bouquet business!
- officer: Really?
- me: No.
- officer: What do you want to do?
- me: Dunno.
- officer: Bullshit (quote)
- me: Maybe. But I can't tell you, you're the enemy! I'm not supposed to have creative ideas. You want to re-train me to be a skilled labourer.
- officer: listen, my brother (insert famous writer's name) and my sister (insert famous singer's name) were always told they couldn't be successful creatives. Now everyone owes them a whopping "touché". Stop bullshitting (yes, bullshit again) yourself and me. Stop making yourself fit to our standards so we'll give you money (not a lie) - go out and start doing what you want to do and stop wasting my time and yours. What do you want to do?
- me: Mr. Scary Employment Man, Sir. I want to be a filmmaker.
- officer: well then piss off out of my office and start living your life!
- me: cool, thanks!
Ok, so ignoring for a moment some of the artistic license I took with the above dialogue (although every "bullshit" was his own), this guy, whose job it is is to turn us down and outs into respectable carpenters and clerical receptionists, saw right through me. For the first time in nearly 10 years, someone other than a blood relative or very patient friend (shout out by the way!) told me to go out there and do what I want to do, and not what the census form wants to see written under "occupation".
Within a couple of weeks we had a website, a Twitter with over 100 followers, a Facebook with loads of friends and we’re developing a whole slate of projects that are now, finally, residing somewhere in the realms outside our own heads. This timeline is no exaggeration. It can be done, it has been done, and we will continue to keep doing it. You just need a little bit of a kick in the arse!
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