It's OK to Slow Down.
I founded a post-production Studio in 2011 when I was 25. I had a great team. I thought I knew & understood everything. More importantly, I was guided by a deep rooted need to help others create better visuals. After a few years we reformed into a small(er) motion design studio in pursuit of our love for animation. It took me a long time to understand how my 16 hour workdays were a bad investment. I felt I needed to hold on to the reigns of everything from managing the business aspects, down to creating the art, animating, compositing, and leading the team. And because I tried to focus on everything art-and-leadership-related, I didn’t focus enough on the business side of things.
Ultimately, my Studio venture had to fail, because as it turned out – I didn’t understand the right things. At that point, I thought efforts always pay off. I was naive and well, wrong. In retrospect, I think I was too young. If not in years, then in my eagerness to take all the steps at once. Managing a business isn’t the same as managing a creative team. I learnt that efforts don’t necessarily pay off when they’re made in directions that aren’t as relevant to the ones you’re servicing. It was tunnel vision fueled by idealism and a burnout waiting to happen. And so, it did. I’m thankful for the lessons learnt.
In 2016, I decided to shift my full attention to designing animation and leading teams as a freelancer. By gaining emotional distance, it was only then that I started to learn from the misconceptions of my younger self. Focusing on less things at once eventually helped to create a work-life balance that made me more receptive to growth – in more aspects than before. I also became a dad about a year after closing shop. 7 years later, aided by 16+ years of experience all-together (of both successes and failures), I’m still searching for even more balance. I believe we all are. And that’s OK. Even though I’m now taking new steps, away from freelancing – I’ve learned to take them one step at a time.
