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Friday, March 4, 2016

Honesty

I really admire people like Mbak Nina Moran who can be so honest about her feelings, her life, her work. I love reading her blog. Blunt honesty is so rare nowadays, so people like her are gems. Or for my case, heroes.

Being honest about yourself and to yourself is a lifetime work. Everyday, you continue to learn to love yourself. And by love, you learn to be honest about your own flaws and strengths.

So, flaws. What are my flaws? A lot. Of course. I am impatient about getting work done as quickly as possible, I am overly perfectionist about details that it can be dragging for the people I work with, I don't know how to be angry when I am in fact really really really angry, I get upset when someone makes my place messy, I cannot tolerate rudeness, I am very forgetful about things, I am extremely blunt, I don't like small talks, I can't work with slow people, I am a workaholic, I still like to skip my prayers, and so on and so on. And for all that, I continue to assess myself and make myself less bad.

My most brutal honesty? Many times, I feel like I don't belong in Jakarta, or perhaps Indonesia in general. But that's unfair because life outside Jabodetabek might be different and I am generalizing too much. But anyway. Life is exhausting, the crowd is exhausting, the competition is unhealthy. This is how I honestly feel. Being an entrepreneur in Indonesia is tiring because I feel like I am competing with brands who just take the whole business game for granted. The industry still lacks appreciation towards originality and process. Everyone wants to make things and make it to the top a.s.a.p. Instant gratification. I have been rolling eyes so many times looking at shoe brands that just copy designs from Marni, Sophie Webster, Celine, Jil Sanders, Burberry, Prada, Saint Laurent. Like, oh that looks cool, let's make it too and brand it our own! And boom, you get featured by magazines and 'it' influencers and suddenly Jakarta is crazy about your brand. Sames goes to clothes, bags, even furniture. Don't magazines have experts on board who can detect unoriginal works and filter them out? Has the media become that lazy? Originality is what our country is lacking. Illustrators steal other illustrator's work and simply retrace them, Instagrammers post pictures not of their own just so their feed feels Pinterest-ish. I don't understand where the beauty is in all this. As an entrepreneur, actions like these become very discouraging. Sometimes it makes me want to stop. At least this is what made me stop making artworks and publishing them on Deviantart. Because it makes you feel having your rights violated and your efforts useless.

Here's what we all should understand clearly. "Plagiarism" and "being inspired" are two different things. Having another person's work as your inspiration and reference is totally acceptable. There's even a legit term for that; reverse engineering. But you make adjustments and make it your own. You make the idea even better. Otherwise, it is pure plagiarism and just plain wrong.

Appreciate process. Appreciate time and hardwork and originality. Appreciate that success is earned. Even titles are earned. Stop self-labeling yourself as a "Digital Brand Expert" just because you think you know how social media works. You are an expert if you have at least 10 years of experience working in that field.

Anyway, that became long hehe. Good night..:)

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Suka sekali baca postingan ini.. Jd ngasih semangat utk jalanin hari ini. Terimakasih kak di.. Tulisan yg jujur namun jg bermanfaat.. :)

hanny arianty gultom said...

Semangat Die, your personal stories always always and always inspire me. Thanks a bunch!

hunz

nuraa said...

Sebenarnya apa itu originalitas ? Pada kenyataanya tiru meniru itu bukan dari brand yang tidak terkenal ke beand yang terkenal ....tapi bisa jga sebaliknya mungkin otak creativitasnya sedang mandek 😁😀.busines memang menuntut creativitas pada akhirnya cepat atau lambat orang-orang yang seperti mbak ceritakan akan kena hukum alam bisnis ( berdoa dalam hati semoga bukan masuk bagian ini )

Ibranesa Nissreyasa said...

tetap semangat dan kreatif ka di, sekalipun ada peniru diluar sana, Rezeki tetep Allah yang atur. mangat!

http://ibranesa.blogspot.co.id/

Annisa Rizki Sakih said...

Kejujuran kak Di dengan mengatakan sulit untuk menyamai energi Shahmeer yang sedang aktif-aktifnya disalah satu postingan blog kak Di itu adalah my 'aha' moment. Bahwa gapapa sebagai ibu untuk mengakui ga bisa selalu jadi supermom yang perfect, lelah itu manusiawi.
Tetap semangat ya kak, tetap jadi inspirasi semua orang.

Novy Astria said...

Most of them not creative because they are just too lazy and impatient. Mostly what I post to my socmed is originally photos that I captured by myself. And sometimes I found out, people use it and re-post on their account.
At least if you cant capture a good photo, they can use photos from stock photo web and for free! Not just copy paste.

However, we cant control it. But at least, we try, start from ourselve, to be an original person.

Ranee Moon said...

Nice...love your thought kak di...

Hanifa said...

Tulisan-tulisan yang bagus dan inspiring malah kebanyakan based on honesty juga Kak Di. I automatically follow Mbak Nina's blog. It's good to share what we insecure about because somebody else might feel the same too.


Love, Hanifa
http://blackpearlhoney.blogspot.co.id/

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