You have to create

Author’s note: Welcome to Edition 08. I write about the moral duty and privilege to create art, products or services. Please hit me up with your thoughts about this essay. I also write a second newsletter with in-depth commentary on how new-age Indian businesses make money (Newsletter link here).

Your goal is singular-- endeavour to create in life. From the day you can hold conflicting thoughts, you are ready to create. This can be a product, service or artwork. The details do not matter to anyone else, only to you. The laws of physics can constrain till you find your way around them. Nothing else is an impediment. Obstacles exist in your head and not in reality.

You have a moral duty to create in this life. This ability sets you apart from animals, and you can bring thoughts alive with agency and desire. Put pen to paper, melt ideas into metal and craft processes in sketches. This is you building your legacy. Prevent fear from participating in legacy building. Set yourself apart from every dreamer who believes but defers.

It takes courage to create. Your ideas can be horrible and your execution deplorable. Your first creation can be belittled but not your effort. This belief in your ability to bring things to life is transformative. It propels you above people who waver, hesitate and question everything till the time has passed. Your opportunity is now, today, and you have to take it.

The opportunity will not disappear into nothing. It exists, is real and will pass on to the next in line. Your dreams will come true, by your hand or by someone else’s. The glory also passes to the one who grasps your opportunity. Let yourself dare before you think you’re ready. You can only fail and plummet to rock bottom-- zero. However, the upside is unbounded. As with creation, your success has no constraint.

Your creation will make way for you. Like with a crayon, it will fill in your blind spots and help define you till you turn the page. Let it not be Gaudi’s Sagrada Família, begun but incomplete. Complete your project quickly and move to the next.

Completing what you begin will drive you to more creative acts. These creative endeavours will shape your outlook and determine your altitude. You have to stretch beyond what you deem possible for yourself. Your vision has to be mocked for you to take yourself seriously. Embrace contempt and prepare yourself to create beyond convention.

You have to create to surpass your image of yourself. No one knows the perimeter of your potential. It’s none of their business and was never yours. Your singular objective in life is to create. Today is the best day to make things.