Friends warned me: the details of my wedding—especially the visual ones—would consume me. I am, after all, an art director by profession and a designer by heart.

I swore I would keep my work and my life separate. But a few months later, my friends proved to be right. I was planning my wedding with the same intensity and meticulousness to detail as a multimillion-dollar brand or product launch, right down to the postage stamp that I personalized with our engagement picture. I found myself branding my wedding.

I sought the empathy and advice of designers who were married and had been there. Surely they would understand. After all, how many wedding invitations and baby announcements do we see in the design annuals every year? Michael Beirut swore to me he had been strictly laissez-faire about his wedding, leaving everything to his parents (who hired a polka band). Stefan Sagmeister, on the other hand, divulged that he had designed an incredibly elaborate, handmade pop-up wedding invitation for a friend, with type not printed, but laser-burned into the paper. He confesses, “I was so grateful my intern didn’t walk out on me when I told her she had to help me create, fold and glue—by hand—200 invitations that day!”

Through all the good-humored stories, an unexpected theme emerged: creative professionals who were not only obsessed with the details of a life event, but they were inspired to launch a new business or change career direction. They were inspired by a wedding—their own or someone else’s. They were inspired by their newborn children in ways unimaginable to them before they became parents. They were inspired by a moment that many of us, in our hurried lives, overlook or take for granted. Because they were open to it, they were able to allow a life event to guide them toward work they are more excited about, which allows their individuality to shine. They all say the direction they took was unexpected. Crazily enough, they all found success beyond what they thought possible—not just professionally, but personally.

As one who has always struggled with the challenge of balancing work and life, I became intrigued with their stories. These are creative people who combined work with life. Successfully. Their responsibilities became a part of their purpose rather than a roadblock. They can’t wait to go to work, because they are inspired again each day by their lives and their clients.

I wondered why it took a life event for these creative professionals to find their niche, to be inspired to explore a new direction in their work. A friend helped me to think of it this way: Why do people cry at weddings? Maybe life events are one of the few times we give ourselves permission to experience and express profound emotion, allowing for a moment of clarity when we briefly remember what’s important to us. Maybe people are ready for a change, and a positive life event gives them the courage and the confidence to take a leap. Maybe it is one of the few times in life when we are able to hear our own voice above the daily noise, without being influenced by a myriad of different opinions—from friends, family, bosses, colleagues, clients. Maybe it’s because most of us unexpectedly discover what we love to do most when we are in action, and in doing a project for a personal life event—our own or someone else’s—we are able to create something unique, causing others (and ourselves) to take notice of what we have to contribute.

In their moment of clarity, the creative professionals in this article were able to see what was most important to them and who they want to be, which in turn brought their inner fire into focus.

Know thyself
Finding your passion—what you love doing most—is important. Passion makes the difference between originality and the status quo, between loving and hating your job. But what exactly is passion? Yasuhiko Genku Kimura, formerly a Buddhist monk, describes passion not as an emotion, but rather “the knowledge of your creative vision.” To put it another way: know thyself. Granted, this is not a new idea, but most of us ignore it out of fear, intent on not examining our lives or ourselves too closely.

Today Kimura is the founder and chairman of Vision In Action, a consulting company that works with businesses to help inspire more original, creative thinking among employees. Kimura likes helping professionals find their passion and put it to better use at work, because work is where people spend the majority of their time and invest most of their energy. In his teachings, he uses the example that while there are hundreds of great pianists in the world, true musical geniuses, such as Beethoven and Kempff, are rare. A great pianist studies and practices hard to become proficient. A genius, on the other hand, knows who they are and what makes them unique, and this “innerstanding” gets translated into what they create. “For Beethoven it was his compositions, and for Kempff it was his playing of Beethoven’s piano music, that expressed, brilliantly and magnificently, their self-knowledge...Therefore, the key to creativity or geniushood is to know who and what you are.”¹ The people in this article tap into what makes them unique, and they make the world just a little better for those they create for. They have confidence in their creative vision—their passion—and the courage to pursue it.