Every October marks a special anniversary to me…
At the time of writing this, 8 years ago I walked away from an established career of almost 25 years in heavy industry, as a Shift Team Leader on a Blast Furnace.
The curious thing about that is I never felt I belonged.
Halfway through that period, I, along with all my peers were asked to participate in a Myers Briggs personality survey, and when my Manager requested I come to his office for my results, an alarm went off in my head (can you even DO these things wrong?).
He explained to me very calmly that I was an ENFP, in an ISTJ role (in essence, the OPPOSITE of what they required).
He then asked if I felt like a square peg in a round hole? I stammered emotionally that I DID, and walked out of his office with extremely mixed feelings.
Looking back, I felt I had done everything I could to leave (I obviously hadn’t).
OUTSIDE CREATIVE PURSUITS:
During this time at the Steelworks, I had embarked on a music career outside of work, and devoted myself to the pursuit of the elusive record contract. My band (The Cherrypickers) toured Qld with INXS, supported Deep Purple, the Radiators, Taxiride, Vanessa Amorosi, Mental as Anything and the Choirboys amongst many others, and toured around the world, culminating in a final gig at the famous Roxy on LA’s Sunset Strip.
And then the wheels came off. Relentless touring and members coming and going ultimately took its toll. I missed my kids terribly and being a shift worker made it more difficult to devote time to the creative endeavour I had embarked on. At that point I made the difficult decision to walk away.
Time marched inexorably on. I settled into normal life, sans creativity. If you’re a creative reading this, you may have an inkling of what it’s like to NOT be creative. You start to feel like a pressure cooker, bursting at the seams, with no relief valve. Add to this a relationship break up, AND Clinical Depression, and things started to look really grim.
Fast forward through intense counselling and self finding, an understanding to love AND back myself, and stuff happens… FAST! A voluntary redundancy opened the doors to providing support for myself while I established this new existence (which I’d been chipping away at for a number of years). It then threw the right people at me, to learn from and work with, and my willingness to work hard, learn fast and devote enormous passion to, meant that a lot came together quickly.
This new entity (and new me) still required a lot of work. I moved interstate in a self imposed video apprenticeship, forcing myself to invent and adapt over three years. I was then confident to return to Sydney, re-invented and re-invigorated and Arc Shot Media was born.
The last four years have placed me in a unique position. I’m finally surrounded by the people who collaborate beautifully with what I want to achieve, which is to become a force in the world of IMPACTFUL STORYTELLING. I no longer wear the multiple pairs of pants of a small business owner spreading themselves too thinly to be of any real use.
I’ve made real change in my industry in the space of 8 short years, but it isn’t enough. When you find THAT fit, you live it and breathe it and push it to whole new levels.
The charm in all this, is that if I can do it, anyone can. “Love what you do, and you’ll never work another day in your life” has never been more apt. And I want to find those Marketers who also love what they do. Between us, I know we can bring real change to their brands.
As Jack Nicholson’s Joker said, “Wait ’til they get a load of me”
JAMES LOPES
WANT TO CONNECT WITH JAMES… you know what to do!
