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Started a business.
Got married.
Bought a house.
Lost the business.
Cleaned cars for 6 months.
Started a freelance illustration career.
Became a staff cartoonist.
Bought a new house.
Drew a kid’s book.
Won an Emmy.
Drew Star Wars spaceships for a book.
Went back to freelance. https://twitter.com/stfutony/status/1193954501620690944
Got married.
Bought a house.
Lost the business.
Cleaned cars for 6 months.
Started a freelance illustration career.
Became a staff cartoonist.
Bought a new house.
Drew a kid’s book.
Won an Emmy.
Drew Star Wars spaceships for a book.
Went back to freelance. https://twitter.com/stfutony/status/1193954501620690944
Of that list, the thing that probably taught me the most about myself (besides getting married) was cleaning cars for 6 months.
I was laid off from the newspaper in 2009. I started a business in 2010, but had a falling out with my partners in 2013. I had no job prospects. I was emotionally and physically exhausted. I was at my rock bottom.
I needed something to help pay the bills. My wife suggested I talk to a friend of her family's. He owned a small car rental company. I was hired to work part time, mostly cleaning cars and retrieving rentals.
At the time, I was ashamed. I didn't want to tell people what I was doing. Even made up an excuse not to go to a newspaper staff reunion because I felt I couldn't look people in the eye. I felt like I was a failure.
Two things happened. First, I found out I liked cleaning cars. It was a mindless task, but it had a beginning, middle and end. After years of doing creative work, it was a cleansing, meditative task.
I'd repeatedly listen to The War of Art, by Stephen Pressfield, on audiobook. It's only 3 hours long. My favorite line in the book is about how artists, like hunters, must deal with tough conditions. I'd repeat it aloud:
"The hill is a son of a bitch, but what can you do?"
"The hill is a son of a bitch, but what can you do?"
The other thing I did during this time was I started drawing again. I had no confidence in myself as an artist or cartoonist. I was just drawing for myself.
On a lark I drew an editorial cartoon. Not because I was looking for a new career. But because I wanted to have fun. One cartoon turned into two, then three and then hundreds. Through friends I made new contacts. Through persistence I started getting freelance illustration gigs.
After a few months I was getting enough steady gigs that I asked my boss at the car rental place if I could go on leave to pursue cartooning and illustration. I don't think I ever formally quit. I even kept my uniform for about a year just in case I had to go back.
Whereas at the start I had been ashamed, by the time I left I knew that I'd do whatever it took to help keep myself and my wife afloat. That even though I wasn't a very good artist I could start a career just though sheer doggedness.
I learned humility. I discovered I had perseverance. And I found out that no matter what I'd just keep going.
The hill is a son of a bitch, but what can you do?
The hill is a son of a bitch, but what can you do?
