Like lots of people, I was looking for a job recently. I’ve been a “Free Radical” for years, and I had been contemplating my ideal career equally. I started meditating on a mission statement for what I wanted; a thoughtful small company, where I can be part of building and facilitating positive change for clients, employees and myself. Of course there is other criteria, I wanted to be locally based, I wanted to focus on what I’m really good at (some people call me a ‘clipboard’), work in a real office where the culture is healthy, and frankly enjoy some precious moments of camaraderie around the water cooler. That’s not too much to ask for, right?

Working as a freelancer gives you enormous freedom, but for someone like me, I feel guilty when I’m not working or doing my part contributing towards the family funds. Let the quest begin…How do we find our calling? What company or institution these days can provide the support to delve into our career that deeply? What are the strategies towards syncing those ideas with financial goals? And how do you know in one, or two or three hours worth of interviews that the company your about to sign with is ‘the one’?

I found many answers at the Illustrators Conference (ICON) a few weeks ago, a perfect example of straddling passion and commerce. Commercial artists are a fascinating group of people. Usually, these free radicals are self-made, highly articulate, curious, collaborative and above all passionate – or sometimes self-described as obsessed. The artists at ICON ranged from conceptual artists for the motion picture industry, animators to illustrators who are assigned editorial work, design US postal stamps and publish children’s books. Hearing first-hand their tales of the changing publishing industry, editorial hopes for the iPad and how a chief creative at Disney balances her gut-honest emotional painting – outside of her cushy ultra creative job.

And it dawned on me. We’re all creative beings, and that ‘special sauce’ that drives us, comes in many forms at many times. We create each day, moment and interaction if we choose to. Whether we bake, build, garden, tool around on cars, or write, we make decisions that impact our life daily. We create opportunities when we open our mind to the possibility. I don’t believe in ‘The Secret’ per se, but, intention and perseverance is certainly worth a lot. I ought to know. My patchwork education was duct taped to gutsy real life experiences, and proving myself hasn’t always been easy. Some people might call my scrappy, self-taught and yes, creative – and I call it intention. My parents always said; “you can do anything you want with your life”, that’s when I started reading the phone book. A friend said, that was the worst thing her parents ever told her, for me, I was naïve enough to believe it. I think it appeals to my creative free radical side, and it gives me hope.

I recently was offered a position with a small firm with thoughtful people that help create positive change in companies and within theirs.  Once again, thank you to the creatives, the trailblazers who struggle to define the road less taken, but are on it anyways, your inspiration and perspiration is not lost on a clipboard.

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Having stumbled upon In the American West by Richard Avedon in the ‘80’s, Leslie Edelman’s casual life on a central valley vineyard became less ordinary. Since then, Leslie has seen the lights of NYC, written poems to the winds of Morocco, and has worked in Advertising on some pretty big brands; Yahoo!, Gap/Old Navy, MSDW, Nike, Kodak, SanDisk, Wired, MTV.  More recently she was the Associate Publisher for Workbook, a strategic marketing partner for commercial artists. Home in San Francisco, she is happily married with two children, two dogs, two cats, two guinea pigs and one fish with a view

Tagged in: creatives, free radical, job seeking, special sauce, working environment