Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Kyle William Harper. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Alright, Kyle William thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.
My parents were married to other people when I was conceived so my birth created two divorces, and I was never really part of either side of the family and I grew up mostly on the street. My mom’s family was full blood German, and was in Berlin at the time of the war so they had some mental issues as you can’t go through a war and not be affected. They were famous entertainers in Germany and John Ringling of the Ringling brothers Circus brought my family to America after the war.. They were highflying acrobats without a safety net in the 50s. My mother would tell me on daily basis that I was a worthless piece of shit, and I hardly knew my father. I was lost & suicidal in my youth with no real family but my older brother Adam was valedictorian and a shaman.. He took me into the forest and gave me LSD in the seventh grade and it changed my life forever. That was the day I became an adult and knew I was gonna follow my heart in my dreams if I was gonna stay on this planet. I had a lot of people that wanted to see me fall, particularly in my family, so I refused to fall and let them win. Success was my only option. At the time both my parents worked at the LAX airport and as my mom was German, I grew up visiting relatives in Europe. I had family on both sides of the wall and I went through checkpoint Charlie in Berlin at age 7, (while it was still operational) to visit family and seeing that Communism at such a young age had a huge effect on my life and inspired me to figure out the world. I had many jobs in my youth but I authority issues so I had to work for myself. I started my first business out of high school on $600 without ever taking a business class before. I had gotten a paycheck from work and was two weeks away from my bills and rent being paid. So I went through 100 of my designs and picked the top 20 and then picked the top five and I ran them into T-shirts. I googled alternative clothing store, Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, Sacramento, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, etc., etc Then I MapQuested it and drove it. Two weeks later, my rent and my bills were paid, and my company was off the ground. That was 35 years ago. I didn’t want my future to rely on others so I made most of my own moves and threw my own events. Most of which I did on a dime with next to nothing. All it took was planning. I knew the art world was mostly in Europe so I threw my first event in Berlin at the Strychnin Gallery without knowing what I was doing. I just trialed and errored my way through and learned.. I have now been showing in galleries worldwide for about 20 years now and I just had a sold out show in Vienna and Madrid. My buddy Curt and I opened a gallery in LA to which we ran for 5 years. Through these experiences, I realized the world was my oyster and that I could do anything as long as I focused & organized. I realized that I had to go through hell to find my Heaven and it made me a stronger, better person because of it. There’s so much to explain but that’s it in a nutshell.
Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?
My brother taught me to not trust the government, question everything and pushed me to be an intellectual so these were the books I was influenced to read. In fact I think everyone should read them.
“The Awakening of Intelligence” by Jiddu Krishnamurti
“Meditations” by Marcus Aurelius
“The Kybalian” by Hermes Trismegistus
“The Emerald Tablets” by Thoth
“The Republic” by Plato
“Morals & Dogma” by 33rd degree Freemason Albert Pike
“The Secret Teachings of All Ages” by 33rd degree Freemason Manly P Hall
“The Secret Destiny of America” by 33rd degree Freemason Manly P Hall
“The Psychology of Man’s Possible Evolution” by PD Ouspensky
“Search of the Miraculous” by PD Ouspensky
“The Fourth Way” by PD Ouspensky
“The Art of War” by Sun Tzu
“The Unibomber Manifesto” by Theodore Kaczinski
“The Secret Doctrine” by HP Blavatsky
“Meetings with Remarkable Men” by G.I. Guirgieff
“The Doors of Perception” by Aldous Huxley
“Brave New World” by Aldous Huxley
“The Astral Plane” by CW Leadbeater
“Behold a Pale Horse” by Naval Intelligence Officer William Milton Cooper
“The Underground History of American Education” by New York City & State Teacher of the Year John Gallo
The Grand Chessboard” by Zbigniew Brzezinski
“World Order” by Henry Kissinger
“Diplomacy” by Henry Kissinger
“1984” by George Orwell
“Civil Disobedience” by Thoreau
“Walden” by Thoreau
“The Bilderberg Group” by Daniel Estabon
“My Experiences Preceding 5000 Burials” by Hamed Bey
“The Mastery of Destiny” by James Allen
“The Undiscovered Self” by Carl Jung
“As a Man Thinkth” by James Allen
“Covid 19 The Great Reset” by Klaus Schwab
“Brihadaranyaka Upanishad” by Yajnavalkya
Nag hammadi library
“Hermetica I & II” (translated by Brian P Copenhaver
“A People’s History of the United States”
by Howard Zinn
“Autobiography of a Yogi”
by Paramahansa Yogananda
Tibetan book of the dead
“The Creature from Jekyll Island”
by G. Edward Griffin
“The Auriferous Gravels of the Sierra Nevada”
by JD Whitney
“Forbidden Archeology”
by Michael Cremo
What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?
Realizing that as a creative, the world is mine. I can do and create anything I want including money out of thin air. Taking something of no value and giving it value. I believe, everyone should do art and create. It’s good for the brain and for business.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.kylewilliamharper.com
- Instagram: Kyle William Harper
- Facebook: Kyle William Harper
- Linkedin: Kyle William Harper
