“We put too much emphasis on the money. What we need to do is work out what we want to do - what project - then work backwards with that focus, determination and faith. Don’t make it about the money. Make it about the project instead. Then the money will attach itself to you naturally, often through unimagined sources.”
When we’re stressing about needing to make money, this kind of ‘unimagined sources’ sentiment can feel really annoying. But as is often the way, when something annoys us it’s often because it’s actually true. And if you’ve read Bronnie Ware’s beautiful and honest book, you’ll trust that there really is truth behind the approach she is suggesting.
When I worked in theatre, part of mine and my teams job was to keep the money separate from the ideas. The best way to do that was to keep the hard money conversations away from the people who were coming up with the ideas, and only intervene to gently steer in the right direction.
Because money can really strangle an idea. If money constraints get into an idea too early on, the idea will only ever blossom as far as the money parameters have been set. And when you’re in the business of making creative work - you want the million dollar 5 star ideas but on a moderate budget, right? Dream big and budget tightly.
But it’s not just the constraints of money, it’s also the energy of the task. Finances are fine and thorough details, precise, exact, head down. Whereas ideas are messy, open, expansive and big picture. They require two different mentalities and two different skills.
The trouble is, when you’re doing your own thing, you are the money department AND the ideas department. And the trick is, finding a way to really separate those two departments. Mentally, emotionally and practically.
Ignoring the money altogether is not practical.
Ignoring our emotions and fears around money is also not practical.
It’s a delicate balance of emphasis and energy at the right time on the right tasks.
We need to put our finance detailed hat on and get clear, objective and consistent around the money picture.
We need to put our ideas hat on and create freely.
We also need to borrow some of that creative energy & thinking and inject it back into the money strategy.
Then at the very final stage, we need some of that fine tuning energy to finesse and action our ideas.
And maybe then, once we start detaching the money department from our imagination and ideas department, we’ll find that the money does start attach itself to us. How annoying would that be? I think it’s worth a try.