The Purpose
Chi11est Productions is the culmination of lifelong held dreams, aspirations, and sensible career choices that hopes to revitalize the original entrepreneurial spirit, ideas and aspirations I had once set out upon but had long ago given up in favor of what seemed to be a more sensible career path and, is the functioning marketing operations arm responsible for the creation of content on various social platforms for other privately held brands and websites.
The Aspiration
More than a decade ago, I took an entrepreneur class and shortly after, had started my first business: Chillpanda. It was a t-shirt design and print company, making custom t-shirt designs that were silk-screen printed in-house and sold in the open market, or so that was the plan. But, what’s important to memorialize is what the company stood for, a philosophy I have only been recently reminded of which should have led my efforts from the beginning and, was originally: To design, print, and share artwork that invokes an alternative perspective to be realized that can contrast the speculations of what we witness and challenge the conceptions of what is known and in doing so, inspire new trains of thought that can only come from leaving consideration for what is unknown among all the things we think we know.
In other words, I had hoped to create a company that produced designs that would remind people of how we can easily have varying perspectives when looking at the same exact thing and the more we bear this in mind, the less likely we are to become upset with someone of a different opinion, outlook, or belief; who, for example and in a particular situation, might’ve left us feeling like they didn’t live up to the expectations we had set for someone like ourselves in the same situation and forgetting they’re not like us (or react how we would’ve wanted them to or expected them to) and would have inadvertently & unfairly held them to standards they couldn’t possibly have been aware of and otherwise generally leads to our own, self-induced sense of disappointment.
So, I figured if people realized what they were doing to themselves, they could identify the mindset, stop the habit and behavior, and avoid having to experience that which negatively impacts their every day life. But, just as things started progressing, costly mistakes were made during the production process of some silk screens and as one thing lead to another, eventually life introduced a number of opportunities and learning experiences that drew my attention away from pursuing passions to working at a job that would pay the bills.
The Journey
What seemed to be driven by a love for food being confused as a passion for the restaurant industry, ultimately led to my creativity being used to help solve operational issues and discovering innovative solutions to restaurant management problems rather than evolving from its pencil sketches and hand drawn comic strips.
It was in remembering how I used to draw as a child that I remembered a fondness with art and creating a work of expression. And, it was in remembering that I had once drawn my own comic “books”, telling stories of a super hero I had named, “Skystalker”, that I began to realize the interests of my life and how they might all tie together.
I loved creating something new, whether it was drawing something of my imagination or putting together a new menu item in the kitchen, I felt a sense of accomplishment in making things. Heavily influenced by the environment of my upbringing, I was always driven to set myself apart, to be different. Yet ironically, in wanting to be different, I also wanted to be like everyone else, or at least, I often found myself wishing to have what it seemed like everyone else had but I didn’t—-a loving and supportive family, the freedom to make their own life choices; and/or otherwise the ability to live a life that was their own. It wasn’t until I turned 18 and moved out on my own did I feel like I had that freedom. The freedom to simply be who I wanted to be. It was at that moment, that my life finally felt like it was my life.
In hindsight, my parents just tried to do what they thought or was taught to be what’s best or at least acceptable by the society they were accustomed to. It just happened to be that the social customs of their home country were no where near in alignment with the country they had moved to which ironically, was in the pursuit of a better life. (That is to say, you wanted to come to a place that offered a better way of life, but what good is it if you don’t change your way of thinking to adopt into that “better way of life”? But I digress)
The Untold Story
Reminiscing about the past, returning to the future, and reflecting on who I’ve come to be; I’ve learned that everyone tries to live their life in the best way they know how. That means that sometimes, they’ll make mistakes that they won’t know were poor decisions until later on in life or in some cases, never. And, I realized that in those particular moment, all of what really happened was that they had changed what was a priority in their minds, one that usually outweighed the desire to be considerate or one that restricted it. With that, it can dramatically affect one’s thoughts and reasoning, heavily influencing a person to act upon a current state of emotions.
So, does that mean we have yet to learn from our own mistakes? And, if we can’t learn from our own mistakes, how can we possibly lead ourselves to believe that we can learn from others’ mistakes when we can’t even improve after having experienced the consequences of our own mistakes for ourselves?
Thus I decided, even if I can’t seem to apply the lessons I’ve learned, perhaps my sharing of what I’ve learned with the world, might just be found useful by someone who was looking for an answer.
Like, maybe… you?
To be continued…