Live from the Apollo Theater
Oh, hi friends!
On Saturday night, I saw America's "money lady" Suze Orman at the Apollo Theater.
A woman in the audience told her she was quitting her corporate job to pursue her dreams of becoming an artist. She was going to cash out her 401K (which was around $60,000), take the penalties, and walk away with $30,000, which she was going to use as a little nest egg for her next journey.
Suze didn’t like this idea. (One of her big rules is to invest in a Roth 401K or Roth IRA until retirement—never cash out!)
But then Suze said something else that will be burned into my brain for a long time.
If you want to be an artist, you have to be a powerful artist.
You can’t be a powerful artist if you don’t have money.
The starving artist.
The struggling artist.
The not-quite-there-yet artist.
We romanticize this idea that artists and creatives can’t make money doing what they love. And that anyone who does make money this way is an anomaly—or just incredibly lucky.
When you’re constantly searching for money, money, money, you can’t operate from a position of strength. You can’t make the best decisions for your artistic career. You don’t feel secure—you don’t have power.
I’m not telling my fellow artists to go get a second, third, fourth job! But I wanted to highlight the tie between feeling in control of your money—and feeling in control of your artistic career. Do you feel the same way?
(Btw, I profiled Suze last year for Money. Read about her island retirement.)
“I was very stunned and I can tell you it was heartfelt and wildly grateful. It all comes before you — all the people that helped you, the support you got day after day, for years, when you couldn’t make the rent. When I was pregnant with my first child, I was 35 years old and I was working in a pet shop.”
Ann Dowd, who plays Aunt Lydia on The Handmaid’s Tale, is such a force. Here, she reflects on her journey and winning an Emmy last year. She’s nominated again for tonight’s Emmys! (h/t Aunt Gina)
“If I can’t take my coffee break, something within me dies.”
HAPPY MONDAY!
(h/t Crystal Skillman)
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Thanks, as always, for reading.
Love, Kara