BECOMING WHO YOU ARE IS BLOODY WAR, FIGHT FOR IT
Carl Jung, the Swiss psychoanalyst who peered into the abyss of the human mind and didn’t flinch, once said,
"The privilege of a lifetime is to become who you truly are."
A privilege? Maybe. But more like a war, a brutal, relentless battle against the watered-down versions of yourself that the world demands. The polite, digestible, algorithm-friendly persona that gets applause but never awe. To become who you are means dragging your own carcass through the trenches of self-doubt, cutting through the noise of conformity, and ripping off the mask until you hit bone.
This isn’t about self-help platitudes or finding your “authentic self” over a matcha latte. This is about creative survival. It’s about having the audacity to make something that doesn’t just take up space but demands it.
THE DEATH OF THE IMITATOR
Most creators are frauds, not because they lack talent, but because they lack nerve. They skim the surface, replicating aesthetics, recycling trends, peddling half-baked ideas that have all the emotional impact of white noise. They build brands the way taxidermists build animals, articulated, positioned, and completely devoid of life.
But the ones who matter? They go deeper. They dig through the dirt of their own psyches, pulling out the raw, uncomfortable, pulsating truths that no one else dares to touch. They build worlds, not just products. And those worlds feel real because they are carved from something genuine, something lived, suffered, and bled for.
YOUR SHADOW IS STARVING, FEED IT
Jung had another trick up his sleeve, the shadow self. The parts of you that don’t fit neatly into your curated identity. The grotesque, the irrational, the violent, the obscene. The things you suppress to keep dinner conversations smooth.
Here’s the kicker, that’s where your best work lives.
The problem isn’t that designers and artists don’t have original ideas, it’s that they smother them before they can crawl out of the subconscious. Because originality is uncomfortable. It’s ugly before it’s beautiful. It makes you nervous. And if your work doesn’t make you a little nervous, it’s probably soulless garbage.
The shadow is where the teeth are. It’s the reason people still flock to brands that challenge, disturb, or seduce them. Think about it, when was the last time a polite brand changed the world?
STOP SELLING PRODUCTS, START SELLING A RELIGION
Fashion isn’t about clothing. Design isn’t about objects. The people who get this own the world, because they’re not just selling a product, they’re selling an ideology. A belief system. A cult.
The ones who do it right build something that possesses people. They make them feel. They make them want to belong, to be transformed. This is how Rick Owens became a deity, how Margiela became a ghost story, how brands like Vetements turned irony into a market-dominating virus.
You want a cult following? Then give them something worth worshipping. Make it so visceral, so undeniable, that people don’t just buy it, they become it.
THE PRICE OF EXISTENCE IS GUTS
Jung called it a privilege, but it’s also a sacrifice. You can play it safe, be agreeable, blend in with the static of a thousand other designers hawking their wares into the void. Or you can risk something real, your reputation, your comfort, your sanity.
Most people will choose safety. That’s why most people are forgettable.
But for the few willing to burn down the false self and build something untamed in its place, the reward is immortality.
So, what’s it going to be?
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