Recently I realized that in my life I’ve come to a point to make some serious decisions. I’m almost a graduate in Communication Science and as from September I can either pursue a postgraduate degree, start my own business or take on the adventure of a job abroad. I chose the latter and started applying for a job in London. But deep inside of me there’s this little voice that wants to start a company, based on a great creative idea and a lot of guts. The last couple of days I started listening to that voice and it kind of confused me.

Yesterday things changed when I occasionally sat down for a coffee with a friend (Ernst-Jan Pfauth). After I told him my concerns, he adviced me to read Hugh MacLeod’s manifesto “How to be creative?“. This morning I read MacLeod’s writings and I became hugely inspired by his Sex and Cash Theory. MacLeod, who is also known as gapingvoid for his cartoons on the back of business cards, describes his theory as follows:

“The creative person basically has two kinds of jobs. One is the sexy, creative kind. Second is the kind that pays the bills. Sometimes the task in hand covers both cases, but not often. The tense duality will always play center-stage. It will never be transcended. (…) It’s balancing the need to make a good living while still maintaining one’s creative sovereignty.” (Click here for a detailed explanation)

When I read about this theory it came to my mind that this way of thinking is the perfect way to pursue an international career while dealing with frequent creative outbursts. Somehow I felt I had to do something with the theory. Since creative outbursts (”Sex”) tend to disrupt my focus while working on my daily job (”Cash”) and vice versa, I decided that I needed to amplify the divide between Sex and Cash. Here’s what I did.

I created two different accounts on my MacBook: a Sex-account and a Cash-account. Whenever I plan to be creative I switch to my Sex-account and while I’m working I’m on my Cash-account. I amplified the two accounts by making two (damn ugly) avatars, using a different background and a different dock with ‘creative’ programs and a couple of other things. In my menubar I continually see “Sex” or “Cash”. I think this is going to help me being more focused at work and at being creative. I’ll give you an update soon.

Just for fun, these are the avatars I made.

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