IT’S NOT ABOUT HAVING MOTION ANYMORE, IT’S ABOUT SUBSTANCE.

When I got to NYC, there was this whole debate, and honestly there still is sometimes, about transplants moving to the city and stealing opportunities. But a lot of times, people weren’t upset because outsiders were talented. They were upset because people felt like the community that was already there, working for these opportunities, would get overlooked.

The hustle culture still existed in NYC at that time, and your contribution mattered.

Back then, the city felt limitless. Nightlife became addicting because you genuinely could party all night and end up working on a Nike campaign with the same people the next day. It felt like iron sharpening iron. Like an apprenticeship for whatever industry you wanted to break into.

But everybody understood one thing: you had to work for it.

Then 2020 hit and the culture changed. Community slowly turned into being “in the scene,” which really just meant people wanted to be seen.

People left corporate jobs to become creatives. Others decided working for themselves was the route too. Suddenly it became less about training, education, or mastering a craft and more about “YouTube University.”

It became a double-edged sword.

Because was the time actually being spent doing the research?

We’ve lost the 10,000-Hour Rule, popularized by Malcolm Gladwell, which suggests that mastery requires deliberate practice, intense and focused training with repetition and feedback.

For mastery: 1 hour a day = around 27 years 3 hours a day = around 9 years 5 hours a day = around 5.5 years

The creative industry became flooded with people who wanted a seat at the table but never learned how to cook. They wanted proximity to the food but they do not care how it is made. They would never put an apron on and get their hands dirty.

But what happens when there are more people sitting at the table than feeding it?

People start claiming titles in their bios and operating off aesthetics instead of ability.

Requirements for skill get diluted.The quality and the material lacks depth. It starts to feel cheap.

And eventually, people with the trained skill either get pushed out or forced to operate at the same shallow level so everybody else can continue functioning without ever learning.

Watching everybody backstage at Rolling Loud was alarming to me. It felt like a clear sign that access itself is no longer rare anymore. Anybody can get in the room now.

So yeah, you can move 100 miles per hour. Rush to every party, every event, push and lie your way backstage if you want. But being in every room eventually becomes equivalent to not being in any room at all.

The real creative directors, publicists, managers, producers, etc. are backstage working, not standing around. Or they’re at home putting that same time back into their craft.

And that’s what separates legacy from moments. Legacy is consistency, not just moving from one table to another.

So the next time somebody asks what you do, your answer shouldn’t just be the brands or people you’ve worked with.

But rather, what do you do when your only resource is yourself?

Written by Ketia Jeune