Is there ever a “right” time to start a creative career? Our goal has always been help people pursuing their passion. Helping those people often means helping them think through important decisions such as when to start, when to take the leap. Below, you’ll find our conversations with successful creatives reflecting back on when they had to decide whether to start or wait.

Cristina Noujaim

I’ve been songwriting since I was nine, and when I was in high school my dream was to go to college for music. However, life (and my family) convinced me to go to engineering school, to get a ‘reasonable’ degree. Something that would make me money, and allow me to support myself. Read more>>

Olga Miliuta

“I’ve been singing and playing the piano for as long as I can remember, so in many ways my career began naturally and very early. I wouldn’t wish to have started any earlier, because music has always been a part of my life from the beginning. Read more>>

Crxss Bonex

I’ve been a constant creative my whole life but didn’t seriously embrace the creative journey until 4 years ago. I use to work at warehouse jobs until I took a leap of confidence in myself to make myself happy. That started with Robert hodge letting me showdow him and then eventually getting a full time job at Crateworks! Read more>>

Carolina Tovar

If I could go back in time, I honestly believe I would start my creative career at the exact same moment I did. My life has unfolded in a way that feels intentional, almost as if every stage prepared me for the next. Read more>>

Richard Masata

It’s all about a certain process. Of course I wish I had started earlier. Of course I sometimes tell myself I should have practiced piano more, because as my projects continue to grow, I have less and less time for it. Unfortunately, you only realize these things when you’re older. Read more>>

Braden Walls

I wish I had started sooner! I didn’t find art until I was probably 20 years old and in my second year of college. I remember I was on academic probation because my grades were so bad. I was taking a music class just as an extra curricular in the Fine Arts building. Read more>>

Amanda Purchase

I wish I had started sooner! For the longest time, fear and self-doubt kept me from jumping off the ledge and putting myself out there. Everything changed when I joined the YMCA. I found a community that lifted me up, and I went from participant to instructor. That gave me the confidence to host my own events and start sharing my work online. Read more>>

Jenn Joslin

If I could go back in time knowing what I know now, yes, I would have prioritized nurturing myself and my creative work as early as possible. I loved drawing and reading as a kid, spending hours at the library laying in the aisles copying images from all sorts of books. I loved animation and went to school to pursue it but something about formal art education felt tedious and oddly lackluster, so I explored many random majors – British Literature, Environmental Law, Printmaking – you name it, before a newfound hyperfixation with environmental ethics and birds led me to settle on a Conservation Biology program. Read more>>

Jerard Chapman

If I could go back in time, I wish I would have started my creative career sooner. I starting taking my creativity more seriously around my third year into college. I was just graduating from a Junior college with my AA, and began attending the Art Institute of Colorado for BA. For many, this may sounds like an ideal time to start the pursuit of a passion, but while I was in High School, I was told “Jerard, your creative mind is so unique and inspiring, you should take it more seriously”, so I wish I would have applied myself earlier. Read more>>

Wiyatta Fahnbulleh

es and no. The reason I say “yes, I wish I had started sooner” is that if I had started sooner, I believe I would be in a different place in my business, further than I feel I am. But looking deeper into that thought, it’s probably coming from a place of comparison or from feeling inadequate in some way, and feeling like I should be in a different place in life. But when I sit in my stillness and really evaluate where I am, how I’ve gotten here, and all of the experiences that I’ve had, and the people that I’ve met along the way, I’ll say “no.”  Read more>>