Maeda's SIMPLICITY

Your Money, or Your Life

More important than E = mc².

From the recent AIGA Aspen thinktank session, I have many good memories. One in particular is the diagram drawn by the team that included Michael Cronan shown here on the right. Our team was given the topic of discourse while Michael's team was given the topic of money.

I am not certain if this illustration (I refer to the one above and not below) of the fundamental challenge in life is original. Yet it reads quite clearly with a strength that has its own form of timelessness. Especially in the creative professions, there is no bigger issue of balance than that of the do something for the money versus the do something because you love to do it. Often the two are not coincident, and thus you must inevitably choose. Choose money? Choose love? Of course your situation is remedied if you love money in which case I'm happy for you that you've solved the paradox, but I feel sad for you as you will certainly miss out.

I first encountered this equation when I met Paul Rand. I was alone with him at his studio when he suddenly got quiet and looked me in the eye, "I have something important to tell you young man." (Everyone was young compared to him of course as he was 80-ish at the time.) With trepidation I stuttered back, "Wh-what?" Rand said, "Make lots of money." Naturally I was a bit taken aback when I heard this, and my face showed a sense of dismay. Rand followed with saying, "Doing the things you love to do will make absolutely no money; so you've got to do some things that do make money." He cited the production of his own books which ranged in the 100's of thousands that were funded out of his own pocket.

So it was nice to see the equation rewritten in Aspen in visual form. The question is one of balance, as it always tends to be. I've got 44 more years until I'm as old as Paul was before he passed away. I wonder how the equation will be written for me? We all write our own equations, don't we? Let us see.

Posted by maeda at July 9, 2005 09:51 AM