Spare me 10 minutes, Save 10 years on your creative journey
7 min read
If you enjoy this letter you can watch it in more depth on YouTube.
—
I wasted 10 years of my life waiting.
Waiting to be ready...
Waiting to have enough experience...
Waiting for the perfect moment to start creating my thing.
But you know who wasn't waiting... the people building AI.
In today's letter, I'll show you not only why waiting to start creating could cost you more than you think, but also why this is the best time in history to finally take that first step.
I've spent the last decade as a creative director, launching brands and products to hundreds of millions of people for a billion-dollar organization.
But despite all of that work and all of that experience, I still never felt ready to just start creating for myself -
that is until just two years ago when I turned 33.
Now, two years later at 35, I've since attracted an audience of over 125,000 around my sci-fi art and stories and built a business on top of that by sharing my creative experience and helping others do the same.
So many people I've spoken to these past two years, maybe just like you, are stuck in the same waiting pattern I was in:
Waiting to start your novel, waiting to share your art, waiting to launch that project or business.
And now with AI on the rise, that waiting has evolved into paralysis for many of them - wondering if their skills will still matter, if there's even a point in starting now.
But the reality is:
AI means more people than ever are going to start creating.
And while some stay frozen, questioning if each path they consider will still exist tomorrow, the creators who start building something of their own today are already laying the foundation for their creative futures.
They're not waiting for perfect clarity about what's ahead - they're just starting.
And the longer you wait to join them, the further behind you fall - but maybe not for the reasons you might think because:
The Hidden Cost of Waiting
The cost of waiting isn't just time, it's not simply measuring from point A) when you could have started, to point B) now.
The cost of waiting is exponential.
That time that has passed wasn't just unspent - it was un-invested in ways which could since have been compounding in value.
Every day you're not creating and just as importantly, creating content about and around your work, you're missing out on compound growth.
Traditionally, working on your craft meant steady, incremental progress:
Your skills improving day by day
Your portfolio expanding piece by piece
And yes, that still happens. But in today's landscape, there's an entirely new layer of compound growth available to creators who embrace it.
See, when you create in public instead of isolation, and when you lean into not just being a creative, but becoming a creator and building something bigger than just individual pieces, the math of how time is calculated changes completely.
And, with AI accelerating everything about how we create and share, this compound effect and potential is only getting stronger.
Every day you wait isn't just a 24 hour day of creation lost - it's a day of exponential growth you'll never get back.
I’ll get back to why this is in a minute.
But, if waiting is so costly - and deep down, we all know it is - why do we keep doing it?
The Perfect Tool Myth
The reason many of us are stuck at the starting line is because we think we need to master the 'right' tools or approach first.
Master Photoshop. Master Blender. Master storytelling structure.
Learn every nuance of character development, nail the perfect marketing funnel, understand every tactic or algorithm.
We tell ourselves we'll start once we've figured it out... that way we don’t waste time later. We’re just being sensible and economical.
That we're just measuring twice so we can cut once.
But the truth now more than ever is that these tools and techniques are changing monthly, even weekly now.
By the time you feel you've mastered one aspect, three new essential skills and tools that you “have to learn first” are now holding you back.
What actually matters, and the reason I created my program Future Fundamentals, isn't mastering any single tool or technique - it's understanding the fundamental principles that stay constant.
Whether you're crafting visuals, writing stories, or building a creative business, the core principles of what makes work resonate don't change just because the tools do.
This realization leads us to a bigger truth about creativity in the AI era...
The Learning Edge
Since everything is constantly evolving, the real skill isn't mastery - it's adaptation.
The ability to pick up new tools quickly, understand their potential, and integrate them into both your creative work and your business strategy - that's what matters now.
You can't wait until you've learned everything about creating or building an audience and business, because that's impossible now.
The landscape is changing too fast.
The creators thriving today aren't the ones who waited to learn everything first - they're the ones who started creating their work WHILE they were learning.
Just as importantly they turned their own learning process into content that connects with others on the same journey but just a few steps behind them.
This completely changes how we need to think about creative experience.
Not 'the creative experience' as some abstract concept, but creative experience as in the actual hours, weeks, or years of work everyone says you need before starting because:
The Experience Stack
Experience isn't linear anymore.
Think about how progression used to work.
You'd spend 10 years mastering Photoshop, or perfecting your writing craft, or learning every detail of video production.
That was the path to success - pick your lane, master your tool, become the expert.
Fill a role in a linear pipeline.
But that world is dissapearing
The tools and platforms we use to create and share work change so fast now that mastering any single skill isn't enough.
What does matter, is just starting - because when you start creating, no matter what it is, every skill you pick up starts to unlock potential everywhere else, often in unexpected ways.
Your understanding of storytelling suddenly makes your tutorials more engaging.
Your experience with audience building reveals what to create next.
Your creative process itself becomes valuable content that helps others while building your authority.
But these combinations only exist because you started that first domino - and in turn they create opportunities that didn't exist before.
The Creation Advantage
Everything you create serves multiple purposes now.
Your art, your writing, your videos - they're not just portfolio pieces anymore. I learned this firsthand with my digital art on Instagram as Future Familiar.
The crucial first step that I finally took at 33 was simply starting to create my own work and begin to share it under a brand name.
After just a couple weeks of showing up consistently, I started to gain momentum with some initial followers and likes.
That foundation was essential and everyone needs to start there.
But the real transformation happened when I took the next step and started creating content about my process - tutorials, behind-the-scenes insights of why I made the creative decisions I did, honest stories about my wins and losses.
When I started doing that something fascinating happened.
Companies and clients started reaching out about content I'd made weeks or months earlier, because they had come across videos that had just been quietly building momentum.
For context, these opportunities came from content that had fewer views than a single Instagram post of my actual art had likes.
But the takeaway isn't to drop everything and focus on YouTube, or to abandon your art or writing to become a content creator.
Those videos, tutorials, and courses worked because I had already built up real experience creating and sharing my art consistently.
The content took what was otherwise ephemeral - social media posts that would fade away in 24 hours - and transformed them into something lasting.
Think about it this way: when I share a piece of art on social media, it might get attention for a day.
But when I turn that same piece, that same experience, into a video about my process or a deeper dive into the story behind it, that content keeps working for me.
It reaches new people months later, builds deeper connections, and creates opportunities long after the original post has faded away.
Now, most people think they have to choose between building, designing, or creating something real and 'becoming a content creator' - like teaching and sharing your journey is somehow less genuine because of what that title of content creator has come to mean.
But we CAN'T let that connotation distract us because building something that compounds in value requires both:
Your art or writing creates the foundation, and
Content turns that foundation into leverage that compounds in interest over time.
So, while others continue to hesitate, taking maybe that first step into creating but getting stuck at the thought of 'becoming a content creator', you could be building both: the work that moves you forward and the content that turns that forward momentum into lasting opportunities.
Which brings us back to that one fundamental truth we started with…
The Time Illusion
The perfect moment to start doesn't exist.
The perfect moment to share your work doesn't exist.
The perfect moment to start building your creative business doesn't exist.
And with AI transforming creative work faster than ever - new tools, new techniques, new possibilities appearing weekly - that perfect moment to start only gets more impossible to find.
But this constant evolution that makes timing impossible also makes starting easier than it's ever been.
The barrier to creating your first thing, to sharing what you learn - is now lower than ever.
What matters isn't waiting for the perfect moment. What matters is starting the momentum that compounds into something bigger.
Look, today isn't perfect - but it's the only day that matters right now. Because tomorrow becomes another day of exponential growth you either gained or lost forever.
The only choice you need to make today is whether you’ll wake up tomorrow as someone who ALREADY started investing in their future or as someone like me who waited too long to start and lost years of potential growth they'll never get back.
I wish someone had written me this letter 10 years ago, so I genuinely hope it helps you.
If you enjoyed this letter you can watch it in more depth on YouTube.
If you enjoy this letter you can watch it in more depth on YouTube.
—
I wasted 10 years of my life waiting.
Waiting to be ready...
Waiting to have enough experience...
Waiting for the perfect moment to start creating my thing.
But you know who wasn't waiting... the people building AI.
In today's letter, I'll show you not only why waiting to start creating could cost you more than you think, but also why this is the best time in history to finally take that first step.
I've spent the last decade as a creative director, launching brands and products to hundreds of millions of people for a billion-dollar organization.
But despite all of that work and all of that experience, I still never felt ready to just start creating for myself -
that is until just two years ago when I turned 33.
Now, two years later at 35, I've since attracted an audience of over 125,000 around my sci-fi art and stories and built a business on top of that by sharing my creative experience and helping others do the same.
So many people I've spoken to these past two years, maybe just like you, are stuck in the same waiting pattern I was in:
Waiting to start your novel, waiting to share your art, waiting to launch that project or business.
And now with AI on the rise, that waiting has evolved into paralysis for many of them - wondering if their skills will still matter, if there's even a point in starting now.
But the reality is:
AI means more people than ever are going to start creating.
And while some stay frozen, questioning if each path they consider will still exist tomorrow, the creators who start building something of their own today are already laying the foundation for their creative futures.
They're not waiting for perfect clarity about what's ahead - they're just starting.
And the longer you wait to join them, the further behind you fall - but maybe not for the reasons you might think because:
The Hidden Cost of Waiting
The cost of waiting isn't just time, it's not simply measuring from point A) when you could have started, to point B) now.
The cost of waiting is exponential.
That time that has passed wasn't just unspent - it was un-invested in ways which could since have been compounding in value.
Every day you're not creating and just as importantly, creating content about and around your work, you're missing out on compound growth.
Traditionally, working on your craft meant steady, incremental progress:
Your skills improving day by day
Your portfolio expanding piece by piece
And yes, that still happens. But in today's landscape, there's an entirely new layer of compound growth available to creators who embrace it.
See, when you create in public instead of isolation, and when you lean into not just being a creative, but becoming a creator and building something bigger than just individual pieces, the math of how time is calculated changes completely.
And, with AI accelerating everything about how we create and share, this compound effect and potential is only getting stronger.
Every day you wait isn't just a 24 hour day of creation lost - it's a day of exponential growth you'll never get back.
I’ll get back to why this is in a minute.
But, if waiting is so costly - and deep down, we all know it is - why do we keep doing it?
The Perfect Tool Myth
The reason many of us are stuck at the starting line is because we think we need to master the 'right' tools or approach first.
Master Photoshop. Master Blender. Master storytelling structure.
Learn every nuance of character development, nail the perfect marketing funnel, understand every tactic or algorithm.
We tell ourselves we'll start once we've figured it out... that way we don’t waste time later. We’re just being sensible and economical.
That we're just measuring twice so we can cut once.
But the truth now more than ever is that these tools and techniques are changing monthly, even weekly now.
By the time you feel you've mastered one aspect, three new essential skills and tools that you “have to learn first” are now holding you back.
What actually matters, and the reason I created my program Future Fundamentals, isn't mastering any single tool or technique - it's understanding the fundamental principles that stay constant.
Whether you're crafting visuals, writing stories, or building a creative business, the core principles of what makes work resonate don't change just because the tools do.
This realization leads us to a bigger truth about creativity in the AI era...
The Learning Edge
Since everything is constantly evolving, the real skill isn't mastery - it's adaptation.
The ability to pick up new tools quickly, understand their potential, and integrate them into both your creative work and your business strategy - that's what matters now.
You can't wait until you've learned everything about creating or building an audience and business, because that's impossible now.
The landscape is changing too fast.
The creators thriving today aren't the ones who waited to learn everything first - they're the ones who started creating their work WHILE they were learning.
Just as importantly they turned their own learning process into content that connects with others on the same journey but just a few steps behind them.
This completely changes how we need to think about creative experience.
Not 'the creative experience' as some abstract concept, but creative experience as in the actual hours, weeks, or years of work everyone says you need before starting because:
The Experience Stack
Experience isn't linear anymore.
Think about how progression used to work.
You'd spend 10 years mastering Photoshop, or perfecting your writing craft, or learning every detail of video production.
That was the path to success - pick your lane, master your tool, become the expert.
Fill a role in a linear pipeline.
But that world is dissapearing
The tools and platforms we use to create and share work change so fast now that mastering any single skill isn't enough.
What does matter, is just starting - because when you start creating, no matter what it is, every skill you pick up starts to unlock potential everywhere else, often in unexpected ways.
Your understanding of storytelling suddenly makes your tutorials more engaging.
Your experience with audience building reveals what to create next.
Your creative process itself becomes valuable content that helps others while building your authority.
But these combinations only exist because you started that first domino - and in turn they create opportunities that didn't exist before.
The Creation Advantage
Everything you create serves multiple purposes now.
Your art, your writing, your videos - they're not just portfolio pieces anymore. I learned this firsthand with my digital art on Instagram as Future Familiar.
The crucial first step that I finally took at 33 was simply starting to create my own work and begin to share it under a brand name.
After just a couple weeks of showing up consistently, I started to gain momentum with some initial followers and likes.
That foundation was essential and everyone needs to start there.
But the real transformation happened when I took the next step and started creating content about my process - tutorials, behind-the-scenes insights of why I made the creative decisions I did, honest stories about my wins and losses.
When I started doing that something fascinating happened.
Companies and clients started reaching out about content I'd made weeks or months earlier, because they had come across videos that had just been quietly building momentum.
For context, these opportunities came from content that had fewer views than a single Instagram post of my actual art had likes.
But the takeaway isn't to drop everything and focus on YouTube, or to abandon your art or writing to become a content creator.
Those videos, tutorials, and courses worked because I had already built up real experience creating and sharing my art consistently.
The content took what was otherwise ephemeral - social media posts that would fade away in 24 hours - and transformed them into something lasting.
Think about it this way: when I share a piece of art on social media, it might get attention for a day.
But when I turn that same piece, that same experience, into a video about my process or a deeper dive into the story behind it, that content keeps working for me.
It reaches new people months later, builds deeper connections, and creates opportunities long after the original post has faded away.
Now, most people think they have to choose between building, designing, or creating something real and 'becoming a content creator' - like teaching and sharing your journey is somehow less genuine because of what that title of content creator has come to mean.
But we CAN'T let that connotation distract us because building something that compounds in value requires both:
Your art or writing creates the foundation, and
Content turns that foundation into leverage that compounds in interest over time.
So, while others continue to hesitate, taking maybe that first step into creating but getting stuck at the thought of 'becoming a content creator', you could be building both: the work that moves you forward and the content that turns that forward momentum into lasting opportunities.
Which brings us back to that one fundamental truth we started with…
The Time Illusion
The perfect moment to start doesn't exist.
The perfect moment to share your work doesn't exist.
The perfect moment to start building your creative business doesn't exist.
And with AI transforming creative work faster than ever - new tools, new techniques, new possibilities appearing weekly - that perfect moment to start only gets more impossible to find.
But this constant evolution that makes timing impossible also makes starting easier than it's ever been.
The barrier to creating your first thing, to sharing what you learn - is now lower than ever.
What matters isn't waiting for the perfect moment. What matters is starting the momentum that compounds into something bigger.
Look, today isn't perfect - but it's the only day that matters right now. Because tomorrow becomes another day of exponential growth you either gained or lost forever.
The only choice you need to make today is whether you’ll wake up tomorrow as someone who ALREADY started investing in their future or as someone like me who waited too long to start and lost years of potential growth they'll never get back.
I wish someone had written me this letter 10 years ago, so I genuinely hope it helps you.
If you enjoyed this letter you can watch it in more depth on YouTube.
If you enjoy this letter you can watch it in more depth on YouTube.
—
I wasted 10 years of my life waiting.
Waiting to be ready...
Waiting to have enough experience...
Waiting for the perfect moment to start creating my thing.
But you know who wasn't waiting... the people building AI.
In today's letter, I'll show you not only why waiting to start creating could cost you more than you think, but also why this is the best time in history to finally take that first step.
I've spent the last decade as a creative director, launching brands and products to hundreds of millions of people for a billion-dollar organization.
But despite all of that work and all of that experience, I still never felt ready to just start creating for myself -
that is until just two years ago when I turned 33.
Now, two years later at 35, I've since attracted an audience of over 125,000 around my sci-fi art and stories and built a business on top of that by sharing my creative experience and helping others do the same.
So many people I've spoken to these past two years, maybe just like you, are stuck in the same waiting pattern I was in:
Waiting to start your novel, waiting to share your art, waiting to launch that project or business.
And now with AI on the rise, that waiting has evolved into paralysis for many of them - wondering if their skills will still matter, if there's even a point in starting now.
But the reality is:
AI means more people than ever are going to start creating.
And while some stay frozen, questioning if each path they consider will still exist tomorrow, the creators who start building something of their own today are already laying the foundation for their creative futures.
They're not waiting for perfect clarity about what's ahead - they're just starting.
And the longer you wait to join them, the further behind you fall - but maybe not for the reasons you might think because:
The Hidden Cost of Waiting
The cost of waiting isn't just time, it's not simply measuring from point A) when you could have started, to point B) now.
The cost of waiting is exponential.
That time that has passed wasn't just unspent - it was un-invested in ways which could since have been compounding in value.
Every day you're not creating and just as importantly, creating content about and around your work, you're missing out on compound growth.
Traditionally, working on your craft meant steady, incremental progress:
Your skills improving day by day
Your portfolio expanding piece by piece
And yes, that still happens. But in today's landscape, there's an entirely new layer of compound growth available to creators who embrace it.
See, when you create in public instead of isolation, and when you lean into not just being a creative, but becoming a creator and building something bigger than just individual pieces, the math of how time is calculated changes completely.
And, with AI accelerating everything about how we create and share, this compound effect and potential is only getting stronger.
Every day you wait isn't just a 24 hour day of creation lost - it's a day of exponential growth you'll never get back.
I’ll get back to why this is in a minute.
But, if waiting is so costly - and deep down, we all know it is - why do we keep doing it?
The Perfect Tool Myth
The reason many of us are stuck at the starting line is because we think we need to master the 'right' tools or approach first.
Master Photoshop. Master Blender. Master storytelling structure.
Learn every nuance of character development, nail the perfect marketing funnel, understand every tactic or algorithm.
We tell ourselves we'll start once we've figured it out... that way we don’t waste time later. We’re just being sensible and economical.
That we're just measuring twice so we can cut once.
But the truth now more than ever is that these tools and techniques are changing monthly, even weekly now.
By the time you feel you've mastered one aspect, three new essential skills and tools that you “have to learn first” are now holding you back.
What actually matters, and the reason I created my program Future Fundamentals, isn't mastering any single tool or technique - it's understanding the fundamental principles that stay constant.
Whether you're crafting visuals, writing stories, or building a creative business, the core principles of what makes work resonate don't change just because the tools do.
This realization leads us to a bigger truth about creativity in the AI era...
The Learning Edge
Since everything is constantly evolving, the real skill isn't mastery - it's adaptation.
The ability to pick up new tools quickly, understand their potential, and integrate them into both your creative work and your business strategy - that's what matters now.
You can't wait until you've learned everything about creating or building an audience and business, because that's impossible now.
The landscape is changing too fast.
The creators thriving today aren't the ones who waited to learn everything first - they're the ones who started creating their work WHILE they were learning.
Just as importantly they turned their own learning process into content that connects with others on the same journey but just a few steps behind them.
This completely changes how we need to think about creative experience.
Not 'the creative experience' as some abstract concept, but creative experience as in the actual hours, weeks, or years of work everyone says you need before starting because:
The Experience Stack
Experience isn't linear anymore.
Think about how progression used to work.
You'd spend 10 years mastering Photoshop, or perfecting your writing craft, or learning every detail of video production.
That was the path to success - pick your lane, master your tool, become the expert.
Fill a role in a linear pipeline.
But that world is dissapearing
The tools and platforms we use to create and share work change so fast now that mastering any single skill isn't enough.
What does matter, is just starting - because when you start creating, no matter what it is, every skill you pick up starts to unlock potential everywhere else, often in unexpected ways.
Your understanding of storytelling suddenly makes your tutorials more engaging.
Your experience with audience building reveals what to create next.
Your creative process itself becomes valuable content that helps others while building your authority.
But these combinations only exist because you started that first domino - and in turn they create opportunities that didn't exist before.
The Creation Advantage
Everything you create serves multiple purposes now.
Your art, your writing, your videos - they're not just portfolio pieces anymore. I learned this firsthand with my digital art on Instagram as Future Familiar.
The crucial first step that I finally took at 33 was simply starting to create my own work and begin to share it under a brand name.
After just a couple weeks of showing up consistently, I started to gain momentum with some initial followers and likes.
That foundation was essential and everyone needs to start there.
But the real transformation happened when I took the next step and started creating content about my process - tutorials, behind-the-scenes insights of why I made the creative decisions I did, honest stories about my wins and losses.
When I started doing that something fascinating happened.
Companies and clients started reaching out about content I'd made weeks or months earlier, because they had come across videos that had just been quietly building momentum.
For context, these opportunities came from content that had fewer views than a single Instagram post of my actual art had likes.
But the takeaway isn't to drop everything and focus on YouTube, or to abandon your art or writing to become a content creator.
Those videos, tutorials, and courses worked because I had already built up real experience creating and sharing my art consistently.
The content took what was otherwise ephemeral - social media posts that would fade away in 24 hours - and transformed them into something lasting.
Think about it this way: when I share a piece of art on social media, it might get attention for a day.
But when I turn that same piece, that same experience, into a video about my process or a deeper dive into the story behind it, that content keeps working for me.
It reaches new people months later, builds deeper connections, and creates opportunities long after the original post has faded away.
Now, most people think they have to choose between building, designing, or creating something real and 'becoming a content creator' - like teaching and sharing your journey is somehow less genuine because of what that title of content creator has come to mean.
But we CAN'T let that connotation distract us because building something that compounds in value requires both:
Your art or writing creates the foundation, and
Content turns that foundation into leverage that compounds in interest over time.
So, while others continue to hesitate, taking maybe that first step into creating but getting stuck at the thought of 'becoming a content creator', you could be building both: the work that moves you forward and the content that turns that forward momentum into lasting opportunities.
Which brings us back to that one fundamental truth we started with…
The Time Illusion
The perfect moment to start doesn't exist.
The perfect moment to share your work doesn't exist.
The perfect moment to start building your creative business doesn't exist.
And with AI transforming creative work faster than ever - new tools, new techniques, new possibilities appearing weekly - that perfect moment to start only gets more impossible to find.
But this constant evolution that makes timing impossible also makes starting easier than it's ever been.
The barrier to creating your first thing, to sharing what you learn - is now lower than ever.
What matters isn't waiting for the perfect moment. What matters is starting the momentum that compounds into something bigger.
Look, today isn't perfect - but it's the only day that matters right now. Because tomorrow becomes another day of exponential growth you either gained or lost forever.
The only choice you need to make today is whether you’ll wake up tomorrow as someone who ALREADY started investing in their future or as someone like me who waited too long to start and lost years of potential growth they'll never get back.
I wish someone had written me this letter 10 years ago, so I genuinely hope it helps you.
If you enjoyed this letter you can watch it in more depth on YouTube.
Future-proof your creator career.
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