The Future of Work: Is being a writer (artist, musician, creative) an impractical career?

In a writers group on Facebook, a young writer asked (edited):

How do you respond to family members saying that being a writer is impractical?

This is a great question. When I was going to college I stopped pursuing music and theater because it didn't seem to lead to a "practical career". I got bogged down in other things and eventually dropped out (after six years and 78 units). But times are changing and we're in a new type of revolution.

So, what do you think?

What is the future of work? How would you respond?

What is impractical, what does that even mean?

First, you reply:

You said 'impractical' when I think you meant 'I'm Practical'.

The root of Impractical is Practical, or to be "not-practical". The word practical is derived from the root word PRACTICE.

practicale "of or pertaining to matters of practice; applied," 

All careers require a great deal of practice, hard work, study of the chosen field, and many small wins before the big wins. Ask anyone who has a modicum of success "climbing the corporate latter" for an honest appraisal of how successful they've become, how successful they feel, and how much work it took to get where they got. You'll find that the effort they put into that career could have been better spent building a career with purpose and meaning.

As such, there is nothing MORE practical than writing, it is the basic cornerstone of society. Marketing, ad copy, news articles, "how to guides", books, movie scripts, and on and on it goes. Writing is everywhere. Try driving five blocks without seeing writing, I dare you. Did you think that writing just appears magically out of thin air? How much writing is in an App? How many Apps are there? Nothing is accomplished without the written word, ask a lawyer.

Someone is being paid to write all of those things.

I'll let that just sink in for a moment.

Writing Is A Cutting Edge Career

Second, the industrial age is not just over... It is DEAD!

For thousands of years, mankind subsisted from his or her chosen craft. 

Bakers, Smiths, Farmers, Scribes... These are some of the oldest professions. The industrial age took people out of locales and threw them like sardines into cities with factories and assembly lines. From the late 1800s to the early 2000s you could "get a job" and retire there.

The days of "get a good job and retire" are over! Truck drivers, delivery drivers, doctors, bookkeepers, and more come into my office all the time and tell me that they were moved from "employee" to "contractor" overnight. They now have to file their own LLCs, get EINs, and start a business to support the job they used to have... doing the same work.

Craft Beers. Craftsy. Etsy. Farmers Markets. Farm-to-Table Restaurants. Handmade Items. Small and Local is taking over every facet of your life while you weren't paying attention.

The industrial revolution was more like an industrial pause button.We left small, local, handcrafted, but now we're back with a vengeance. The Maker Movement has returned us to our roots.

The Industrial Revolution allowed for the Information Age which then provided the Maker Movement with a vehicle that could return us to those age-old roots.

We are never going back to "working for the man" again as a society. This is my guess (and other's guess it too), more than 50% of the population will be self-employed within twenty years.

Being a writer (artist, musician, creative) has never been more practical. You just tell them:

I'm just ahead of the curve. I've never been more practical.

Shalom: Live Long and Prosper!

Darrell Wolfe (DG Wolfe)

Storyteller | Writer | Thinker | Consultant @ DarrellWolfe.com