Your CV, your career, your dream job. All of these are nothing if you are not free to express yourself. Thanks to my friend Jerome Drago, a French blogger helping out job seekers to find their own way, here is a very valuable example of how it is possible to get the right job, but in the wrong company.
I am pretty sure you all know the celebrity I am going to write about in this article. He is one of the most gothic filmmakers in Hollywood. And even though he has been this way his all life, he did not get the opportunity to express his particular talent during his first professional years. Frustration, anger, isolation. This is what happens when you are not allowed to bring the value you would be able to. When you know you are different, it can become very hard to be forced doing and acting just like everyone else.
An atypical personality
Tim Burton is one of these people. When he was a child, he was already gloomy and taciturn, and spent his time watching horror and fantastic movies far from his age. A child like no other!
Later, he said about those movies he used to watch : They left an indelible mark on me. I do not know why but I felt like they were talking to me, like this new Poe where a man is buried alive and burnt alive. That is the kind of feelings I had for Burbank, very negative views towards the suburb atmosphere, supposedly nice and normal.
He started drawing his own vision of the world, full of dark castles where dead people and spooky creatures lived their own stories. And this is how he naturally found his dream job : motion designer. His talent allowed him to get a grant, and he could enter the California Institute of Arts. Thanks to his prestigious diploma, Disney Studios hired him to work on animated movies. His dream job had come true! But...
A whimsical personality in a (too) mainstream business
It did not take long to Tim Burton to realise that it will be quite a challenge to thrive in such a highly codified company. He spent several months in a tiny office room, working on sketches and projects that no one would have a look at.
Unhappy and frustrated, one his worst experiences at Disney was when he had to work on The Fox And The Hound animated movie, spending days to draw cute little animals. You can easily imagine the torture it was for him!
Later, he got more responsibilities on The Black Cauldron, but almost none of his ideas was kept for the movie, as they were considered way too dark and weird. That is when he decided it was the time for him to leave this company who offered him his dream job right after his prestigious degree. Actually, it was even Disney who fired him!
The freedom to assume his personality
Right after the end of his experience at Disney, Warner Studios spotted his particular talent, and proposed him to work on his own projects, without any restriction. Within a few years, three original and gothic masterpieces came out : Pee-Wee's Big Adventure, Beetlejuice, and Batman. Thanks to Warner, Tim Burton could show to the world how talented and creative he was, and blossomed into one of the most bankable filmmakers in Hollywood.
In the end, he could impose a new vision in cinema, and Disney even teared its soft eye, when they asked him to make The Nightmare Before Christmas, James and the Giant Peach, and Alice in Wonderland.
If you feel like Tim Burton, having your own vision of things, do not let people tell you that you should be more like everyone. Your personality is what makes you unique, and it is from far your best asset. Even the most prestigious diploma will not make you happy. Your ideas and your freedom to express them are what should matters the most to you.
So, if you ever feel you should not be doing the job you are doing, or if you think that the company you work for does not use your talent at his maximum, raise and stand up, and show the world what you are able to accomplish. Sooner of later, you will succeed on your own, or meet with the people that will allow you to blossom. Fight for it, and follow @JeremyLamri on Twitter for more tips!