Finding confidence

Finding confidence

I have lost it, like the Tin Man in the Wizard of Oz. For him a heart, for me, confidence.

A cancer has been consuming my passion, work, art. Certainty. The skill of carrying yourself with such conviction that everybody believes you have all the answers, including yourself.

Certainty is foolhardy.

“Is this ship really unsinkable?” she nervously inquires of a nearby deckhand. “Yes, lady,” the deckhand answers. “God himself could not sink this ship.”

Certainty erodes confidence. Certainty is a dead-end.

In a society where we are spoon-fed facts, and alternatives, it negates the need to ask questions? Effort. Why bother? I want to bother! It’s life and death, finding meaning and confidence.

Being inquisitive and doing the work, leads to confidence.

Madeline Albright said, “Certainty comes from believing we have learned all there is to know. Confidence comes from the effort to learn all we can.”

In a world filled with answers, there’s nothing left for an artist to do.

Creating a culture that seeks out answers

A personal example of ‘Questions’ in action.

I recently spent and day with friends working on faux communication campaign. The objective, create a Public Service Announcement on Global Warming.

Convention. Global Warming messages often consist of facts and science. There was no personal urgency to ask questions. We believed it wasn’t intimate enough.

Human truth, a pattern. Migration is a critical topic in Europe. A human tragedy littered with questions, driven by fear, drama and empathy. Even though it is heartbreaking, most of us deny responsibility for it.

Disruption. What if we told you that a catastrophic migration, at an unheard of scale, is coming? Driven, not by war, but by the choices, products and the lifestyle we lead today. Who’s accountable now?

Storyboard. The following is a story of two families. Their experiences contrasted as they travel to their destinations. The final reveal, one journey indirectly influenced the other. Both families arriving at the same destination but for very different reasons.

Asking more questions. Rather than supplying more facts, we wanted to inspire a quest to find the answers to very personal and compelling questions. “Will my lifestyle lead to the displacement of millions? What does that mean?”

Do the future of others fuel your lifestyle?