Is Beige Your Favorite Color?
The Courage To Create
Have you ever met anyone who said their favorite color was beige? I haven’t. It’s often green, or black, or purple or something. But I am yet to hear some excitedly shout: Beige!!!
Creating your own flavor, especially one that might not be in high demand takes real courage. Here's something we don't talk about that often: what really stops us from creating isn't usually a lack of motivation or discipline. It's a lack of courage. Because creating something - anything - is one thing, but creating something that truly resonates with who you are? That's an entirely different beast, especially after years of making yourself more palatable to the public, to the algorithms, to everyone but yourself.
It's a peculiar paradox of our time: In a world where authenticity is supposedly valued, we're still constantly tempted to sand down our edges, to become more digestible, more mainstream.
And yet, in today's world, if you don't become who you truly are, you will vanish. The beige will blend into beige, and the vanilla will dissolve into vanilla, until there's nothing distinctive left to see or say.
So we find ourselves in this tricky situation. We desperately want to be accepted, to be seen. And it's so tempting - so very tempting - to create what we know will resonate with people. The algorithms make it easy to see what works, what gets the likes, what drives engagement. But unless you happen to be someone whose natural inclinations perfectly align with the mainstream, following this path means slowly erasing yourself.
Which Makes Me Think of Zelig
Zelig (1983 by Woody Allen) is a mockumentary about Leonard Zelig, a human "chameleon" who has the bizarre ability to physically and mentally transform to match the people around him. If he's with psychiatrists, he speaks like one. If he's with overweight people, he becomes overweight. If he's with Chinese people, his features become Chinese-like.
Zelig is a clever satire about conformity, identity, and the human desire to fit in. Zelig's condition is an extreme metaphor for how people often change themselves to be accepted by others.
Trimming & Pruning
It's not just about the act of creation - it's about the vulnerability of putting your true self out there, especially if you haven't done it for a long time, or if your environment has never really encouraged it.
Some people are lucky - they grow up seeing role models who live authentically, who do their thing without constantly checking over their shoulders for approval. That's a massive head start in life, a gift that keeps on giving.
But most of us? We've had to adapt.
We've learned to highlight certain parts of ourselves while carefully tucking others away. And when that strategy stops working - when we need to go deeper and scratch beneath the surface - we hit a wall.
The first challenge is internal: We need to understand what we're actually about. Because in today's world, just sharing information isn't enough - that's becoming increasingly commoditized. What's truly valuable is your point of view, how you infuse reality with your unique perceptions, how you connect dots that others don't even see.
However. If the world hasn't appreciated that unique perspective in you for a long time, you might not see its value either. You might start questioning whether your way of seeing things matters at all. And without the right kind of feedback - feedback from people who actually get what you're trying to do - it's hard to build that essential self-trust.
Getting feedback from the wrong audience can be worse than no feedback at all; they might not recognize the value in what you're doing simply because they're not equipped to see it.
Feedback is a mirror, and when we’re standing in front of the wrong mirror (the wrong audience), it’s easy to feel distorted, undervalued, or invisible. This can make sustaining action feel like an uphill battle, especially when doing things requires courage and grit to begin with.
The challenge, then, is twofold:
Finding the right audience—those who can truly see, appreciate, and value your work.
Building an internal source of validation so your momentum doesn’t depend entirely on external feedback.
This isn't to say you should create in a vacuum - though if you create consistently enough for yourself, that might actually work out in the end. But if you're always trying to please everyone but yourself, well... life's a little too short to always order the same thing at the restaurant, to always stick with vanilla ice cream when your soul craves something entirely different.
I think the real obstacle isn't really about finding the time to create, or maintaining discipline, or even mastering techniques. It's finding the courage to be yourself in a world that often seems to reward conformity. It's trusting that your particular way of seeing and being in the world has value, even if - especially if - it doesn't fit neatly into existing categories.
Because at the end of the day, your unique perspective isn't just a nice-to-have - it's a non-negotiable. In a world increasingly saturated with generic content and AI-generated material, the only thing that can't be replicated is your specific way of processing and presenting reality. Your weird connections, your unusual insights, your particular flavor of seeing the world - that's not just valuable, it's irreplaceable.
The question isn't whether you should create authentically - in today's world, it's the only sustainable way forward. The question is whether you can find the courage to trust that your authentic voice, your genuine perspective, is worth sharing. Even if it doesn't immediately resonate. Even if it takes time to find its audience. Even if it means being misunderstood along the way.
Because what’s the alternative? Spending your creative energy trying to be a paler version of someone else? That's not just unsatisfying but utterly unsustainable. It's a sure path to invisibility.
It takes grit to keep going without applause. But the applause (OK, maybe a one person’s clap in the back of the room at times) will come if you stay on track and keep inching forward.
Finding Your People
Most people who quit don't quit because they're bad at what they do. They quit because they're looking for applause in the wrong theater.
If you make sushi for people who hate fish, you haven't failed at making sushi. You've failed at finding sushi lovers.
The internet has eliminated the geography problem. Your weird is someone else's wonderful. Your strange is someone else's sublime. But we still act like we need to convince everyone in the room, when the room isn't even the point anymore.
The secret isn't to shout louder or to make your work more "normal."The secret is to make your work more you. More specific. More peculiar. More honest.
Because the people who get it will really get it. And the people who don't? They were never your audience to begin with.
Start small. Build slowly. One true fan is worth more than a thousand polite nods.
And remember: Nirvana didn't become Nirvana by trying to please Kenny G fans.
Feeling stuck in Oscillation, starting, quitting & overthinking?
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