No passion... just a conveyor belt?

When I was 16 years old I was a 'scared designer', I had ambition, desires, goals, aims... but fear that I might fail.

That fear became a driver for me. It made me work. I looked at others in my group, others who were better than me, and that made me work harder. It made me have something to prove, and that drove me on. I became more and more dedicated, I put my heart and my soul and my intellect into my work. I made an investment of time, effort and emotion.

Success really mattered, failure I would not tolerate.

Because of this I have literally put sweat and real tears into my development as a student.

Finally, I proved my point. I applied for the top 3 design colleges in the UK, Ravensbourne College, The London College of Print (now the London College of Communication), and Central Saint Martins. My tutor told me that they only interview first choices, but I didn't care. This was a statement of intent, of ambition, where I wanted to go.

I was accepted by Ravensbourne College... I turned them down.

Point made, ambition achieved, I went and studied at a place I actually liked. Always knowing that I was good enough to be one of the best.

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So where is your passion? Do you think deep down that you are in the only college that would take you? Deep down do you think you are lame?

(The cure for feeling 'lame' is to get better at what you do. The path to getting better at what you do is practice. Practice requires time, effort, concentration, passion.)

Where is your confidence? Confidence comes from work, and effort, sweat and tears, until you know what you are doing and can speak from experience and with the authority of being right.

When was the last time you cried over your design work? If harsh criticism of your work doesn't make you want to cry you have not invested enough time, effort or emotion into it. You do not believe in it. And that means you do not have the passion to succeed.

Instead are you riding the conveyor belt? You know the one I mean. The one that you started when you first went to school age 5. Automatically and with very little effort you have progressed from infants to primary school, primary school to secondary, secondary to college. And most recently, one way or another, you have been accepted onto Higher Education. But the conveyor belt has an end. There is no job waiting for you at the final drop off, there is no automatic next step, there is no comfortable transition.

All there remains is you, and what you have become, and what you are able to do.

Go and watch design for life and see for yourself: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00n8198/Design_for_Life_Episode_4/.

Passionate students put in the time, the effort, the sweat and the tears. Why do I not see you guys in college more, working independently?

Passionate students learn what they want to know off their own back, they don't wait for someone to feed it to them. Why do I not see more in your homework? Why is it just the lesson regurgitated? Where is the bit you learned yourself?

Passionate students get inside the problem through research, through investigation, then spend time developing original solutions, and more time presenting them neatly and clearly. Why do I not see your development work? (Because there isn't any? You just regurgitate what you have seen before, nothing original?)

Passionate students get excited about their work. Why do you not even do your homework?

If you are still on the conveyor belt, the time to get off is NOW. NOW is the time to get some passion, to finally grow up and stop letting your peers direct your attention, your work ethic, your thoughts and ultimately your future.

Remember, at the end of this particular conveyor belt, there is only you, with whatever grade you earned.

This is stand on your own two feet time.

So stand up. Get off the conveyor belt, and get some passion.