You should be working this HARD

if someone were to ask me five years ago how hard they should be working to succeed in a field like animation i would just simply reply that they should just instead work smarter not work overwhelmingly hard at all and find that life and work balance however if i were to reflect on that i would have to admit nowadays that that answer does not come from a place of honesty it isn't fair and it doesn't come from a place where i'm genuine to be honest i wouldn't have gotten to where i'm at if there was no hard work at all so let's be honest here and let's talk about hard work working hard and hard workers [Music] hey guys it's taniko pentoa and today i'd like to talk about the idea of working hard and how hard one should work to be considered successful or to reach their reward and goal now the conversation of working hard how hard you should work and all that has been quite a controversial topic some people will say anyone who's not willing to work hard beyond their normal work hours and that they're not working in their free time should not be in this line of career and then there are other people who would avoid working super hard and find ways to make their jobs easier for themselves and everyone there's a lot of different opinions and viewpoints on this topic there's a lot of controversy with the topic of working hard because it can stem from cultural views belief in work ethics and values whether there are cultures out there who believe in a more independent mindset or a collective mindset and there are other more simpler factors like a person's personality or a person's experience whatever the factors are it affects the way people think and view about working hard and how hard one should work as for the definition of success that's also quite subjective for everyone some people view success as a state of mind whether it's being content in what you have and what you do or some people view success as a high standing in luxury in riches status fame no matter what it is i think everyone has a different mindset of what success is to them so let's say you've chosen what that image of success is to you how do you get there but the main topic i want to talk about is how hard should you be working to get to that version of yourself there is a value to working hard the amount of work you put in will bring in rewards and sometimes may equate to the results and rewards i believe that hard work always leads to some form of result even if it's not the most ideal results that you wanted even if it doesn't open opportunities that you were gearing for it does open other doors you might have not considered when i was a third year at school i did nothing but work very hard on my short film wolf song all i did was just animation and storyboarding and i was hoping that i would get the disney or the pixar internship whether it was for storyboarding or hand-drawn animation and for three years every time i applied i never got that i didn't get that internship that i really really wanted and was the sole reason why i worked super hard however this did open a new door for me the recruiters and the cinematics team from blizzard entertainment did see my film wolf song and actually did want to hire me as a full-time artist at blizzard as a cinematic story artist however i personally couldn't take it because of visa reasons i'm not allowed to work unless i graduated or went through an 01 visa which i didn't have credibility at the time but that hard work of just crunching to the point where it was messing with my physiology it did open promise for an exciting opportunity now the second reason why i value working hard is that there's this cheesy quote diamonds are best made under pressure and this makes more sense in a circumstance like crunch time when someone is put into a challenging circumstance to work on a project whether it's crunch time or trying to meet a high quota in a very limited time or how that can be brutally draining it is mentally physically and emotionally it's where the individual is forced to make certain decisions and choices that can lead to an outcome that individual might have to start prioritizing that individual might have to find ways to make that process more economic or they might just have to get rid of it that process of elimination and selecting it's not the only way but it's another great way of building one's character and personality and how they are able to work under these highly stressed circumstances now i do want to address the biases of working hard people who always vouch for working hard to the point where it's crunch time and it's basically an everyday lifestyle and that sometimes people sort of cherry pick on who their favorite example is that represents working hard equates to success i'm going to take hayo miyazaki for example because his ethics of animation how hard he works is pretty much a meme so let's cherry pick hayao miyazaki then i'm going to add another random bloke not famous at all no one knows who he is he's just a random bloke but kind of shares the same principles as miyazaki they both work super hard they're both very intense individuals they say things like if you can't handle the work of this industry you don't deserve to work in this industry they may be super hard to get along with to the point where they're not likable but they're clearly passionate about their craft now because the random bloke is not well known and he has no work to back that up with most people are just going to see him as that grump in the work environment he's not fun to be around with he's hard to get along with and he makes working hard seem uncool now let's look at miyazaki he has the work to back it up he's a visionary he has a lot of things to say and tell he's driven and has very clear intentions with his goals he's also quite disciplined so he uses that willpower to segregate them into things that need to be finished it's not just hard work but he also has a strong voice so because of miyazaki's accomplishments and his works i'm sure a lot of people have way more respect for him for his hard work and his dedication and would let his intense mentality fly and may actually inspire people just to work as hard as he does he makes working overwhelmingly hard seem cool i think people tend to cherry pick some examples of people who got to where they're at and just do this thing where they say oh because that person that i look up to did it i'm going to do it too this is the only way that i can be successful whereas we tend to exclude the high number of people who work just as hard but didn't become as big or prolific as hayao miyazaki or maybe they failed along that journey so in other words no one else is hayao miyazaki if you want to work overwhelmingly hard you should always feel free to do so but you should also remember that you should build your own experiences and your own viewpoints rather than basing someone else's experience as a one path or one way to working hard to success so what if we were to gauge or break down the levels of how hard one should be working there's not hard at all you start your work day and you end at your work day and that's that maximum work time is about 8 hours you can go less you have other ways in how you'd like to spend your life or you have other life priorities and life plans that's outside the realm of your career and work the next level would sort of be sort of disciplined spend a few hours after work this is where you'd be willing to spend some time after your work hours on work related stuff or personal project stuff you'd still have a very good life and work relationship and still get a healthy dosage of sleep maybe this will give you let's say two to three hours of free leisure time or time that's not spent on working if let's say you're working full time you graduated and you're sort of trying to adjust your lifestyle but you still want to work on personal stuff outside of your work hours i think this is a good one to start with because it allows you to be consistent without crunching or really killing yourself over something and you just get a feel of things so from then on once you've fully adapted to this sort of schedule you can either back off or you can start adding more time and more dedication to your work to me i think this is probably the healthiest version of working hard since it does have a really good ratio of maintaining that life and work balance this is great for someone who's willing to just shell out two to three hours on personal projects that's consistent that doesn't feel too draining and it feels like you can maintain it while on top of a full-time job again if you want to start shelling extra time for maybe personal projects after your normal work hours i would recommend doing something like this where you just dedicate two hours after your normal work hours or after eight hours of work she's just dedicated to working your own stuff the next one being rather spend your free time on these projects this is for someone who already enjoys their work and would rather spend their free time working even more they enjoy it to many this is the ideal level that a lot would love to be in where they're super passionate about a project and they're just willing to shell out free time they lose track of time because they're so into their projects this is for people who are both ambitious and passionate and these are people who are willing to work way over time maybe they lose some sleep because they're so into their projects and they actually enjoy it in a way it's the good version of stress there's a word for it it's called yeast stress where you enjoy the stress and you find that stress beneficial for you it's the opposite of distress this may be a healthy viewpoint for people who are passionate and ambitious about their work but they should also still fight for a healthy lifestyle where they have time to exercise they have time to spend that time with family maybe time to socialize a bit maybe sometime for leisure and entertainment where they can actually absorb inspiration from other forms of media maybe there are days where you miss out on that i think this is where i currently sit at personally now the fourth one being out of stress and distress this relates to things like crunch time high quota high pressure you're just stressed out so there's a lot of discomfort and pain you'd rather wish that you weren't doing this type of work so instead of yeast stress we're talking about this stress it's stress that we don't want and that's not beneficial at all to our life for people in this stage who are just stressed out about their work maybe they're stressed out because there's a certain fear of failure which is why they're just giving it their all there are many times you're just not getting enough sleep and it's not beneficial to your health i think for people who worked through college and gave it their all they know this feeling already personally and remembers this is just an opinion but i think everyone should go through the stage or this level at least once or twice in their lifestyle because like i said earlier making decisions in those high pressure circumstances does build character some people may decide to just lie down and cry whereas some people will just go you know what i'm just going to power through it i'm going to make sacrifices but what i need to do is get this done and maybe you do need that pressure to let that other side of you come out and the last level is so hard until your nose bleeds if anything starts bleeding you should probably stop health deteriorates anything that's damaging to you i have a few friends that got permanent damage in their carpels maybe in their scissor pincher artists have died due to overwork their heart failed respiratory problems and they're psychically heavy affected i don't think i've personally hit the stage but i have done overnighters and there were times where i got so little sleep that when i was just playing my film through edit it felt like the film was either playing in slow motion or in high speed and that got me so paranoid because i didn't know if the film felt too slow or too fast it got to the point where my mind was already playing tricks on me so do your best to never go into this level at all again if anything bleeds stop but remember that's just my opinion so let's say you ask me for my opinion my general opinion about this whole idea of working hard first of all it's not my place to tell you guys how hard you should be working my experiences are different than yours and therefore it's a decision experience that you guys have to make and undergo yourself everyone's different everyone has different personalities everyone has different circumstances and different goals some people have to work harder than other people to reach a goal whereas for some people reaching that goal is quite easy for them i'm dyslexic so when i read a book i have to read a page at least twice to fully comprehend what was being relayed in that page sometimes i write notes when i read a book just to force myself to respond to what i'm understanding whereas my sister can read like a thousand pages per day she's a bookworm now personally i do believe that people should push themselves occasionally whether that's through hard work or other challenges they have to face in life i personally don't like it if i'm too comfortable life being too easy but i also don't like it if my life is too stressful all the time being too comfortable can lead me to being lazy to not push myself as much and sometimes it can lead to boredom for me whereas being stressed all the time that really isn't good for my health there's a time for struggle a time where you can test who you are as a character and a time for peace a place where you can rest and reflect i think there has to be a variety so it makes one of the other more rewarding so let's say you just finished working super hard on something and now you decide to rest for a while that allows you to rejuvenate but it also gives you time to think about what you learned out of it how you can improve that work style what would you do differently and i think that's why it's important to have a period of peace and rest if you're working too hard all the time you're not going to be able to reflect what could be worked so you're just gunning through with sheer willpower so if we're talking about the context of this video i personally would constantly change it up some days where you work harder than others and some days where it's just much more relaxed and easier and maybe you gave yourself time off i do have some other opinions depending on the state or the circumstance and of course these are opinions and these are always open for discussion if you're young and you're a student and you don't have a lot to lose there's less risk if you decide to work super hard i'd spend some time working much harder than usual so you can build that mileage that mileage and experience can eventually lead you to becoming faster and better at your craft so you can gain some form of familiarity with it so what was really hard before might become let's say medium the next time you do something similar to that but should this be a 24 7 thing absolutely not i still believe that even the youth should change it up time to time whether they work hard or whether they play hard let's say you're an adult with a full-time job you already have a set curfew for your lifestyle you have priorities but let's say you want to start working on projects that can help you eventually get somewhere to this vision of what is considered successful for you i personally would not tell you to work super hard and crunch but i would suggest maybe dedicating one or two hours working on a personal project or a certain thing that allows you to go further in your career i would not go beyond two hours and i would do this for maybe a few more weeks just so it becomes a regular thing for you but it's also to gauge how much you can do in that time whether you feel like you want to go further than that and how do you balance it with your current lifestyle but even if you decide to stay at this point you're still moving forward towards something now let's say if you're ambitious and passionate i can sort of assume that you're the type of person who would rather spend their free time working on personal projects or things that you're passionate about something about it makes you fulfilled and if you really want to challenge yourself and maybe give yourself crunch time maybe give yourself a deadline and this is where you have to start prioritizing whether you decide to work super hard or whether you decide to work smarter meaning you find a solution where you don't have to overkill yourself i think people who spend time trying to work smarter makes the medium so much more accessible and to allow someone to either focus more on the creative elements of the project or whether to spend more of that time on other life stuff now of course there are people out there who are ambitious passionate and are willing to sacrifice their health for their work while i'm the type of person who would preach not to go down this route where it's already affecting your health i can also understand why one would decide to go down this route so it's true that there are some people mad enough to really sacrifice a lot to fight for what they want 10 years ago every time i heard someone like hayao miyazaki announced that he was retiring from animation my response was always like yes that dude can finally rest be happy and enjoy life because every time i summon those documentaries he always seemed angry grumpy and just sad about the animation industry but fast forward to now every time i heard news that let's say he was coming out of retirement i can't help but respect the dude he's dedicated and passionate for his craft even if it makes his nose bleed would i ever strive to be like hayao miyazaki or work as hard as his ethics no because that's hayao miyazaki and i don't think i should or want to be like anyone else than myself some might call the dude crazy and intense for his craft that it's pointless to be this intense to just cartoons but maybe to him that's another form of e-stress i don't know anyways that's all i'm going to talk about for today bye interested in learning hand-drawn animation or learning how to finish an animated shot from beginning to end have a look at the store where you'll find the complete introduction to 2d animation video course tutorials and other resources learn classical animation approaches drawing lectures techniques and other process videos visit the store through the link in the description below

Channel: Toniko Pantoja

Views: 78,478

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Id: YPVPf_joVpw

Length: 16min 57sec (1017 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 24 2021