Advice

" Take what you want but you gotta share it with the world " Share,  Drake

Where did I leave off...? 

First off I would like to "shout out" and throw some thank you's in certain peoples way. In no order what so ever, HD, BF, and Pictom! HD came up to me on campus today and was like "Where is Part Two ? ! ? " HA ! That just made me laugh so much. Pictom aka Tom Lambert was the first one to read the post and hit me up on twitter with appreciation. And the BF is constantly encouraging me. Today I was feeling like I couldn't blog but I have "fan base" now people who are checking the blog and seeing what I do. Everything I do ... Is for you all.

So lets GO! 

Part Two: 

Since I developed this dream to be a Footwear Designer I have been trying to learn as much as I can from the best people in the business. 

I randomly contacted Jason Mayden and he has been so helpful to me. I told you how advises me, not just with design but life advice, true words of motivation and inspiration. Yet, even though I have this connection which I do not take for granted, I'm still searching for more advice, more leadership and more direction. I realised fairly quickly that every designer doesn't posses a a Facebook account but although I can't get at them directly, I can Google their name and read past articles they have done. 

I came across this article today and it really has blown me away!

I know I've said "read this", or "check this out"and I probably will continue to do in the future, but if you were to EVER read an interview this would be it! 

I check the blogs daily through my Google Reader and a couple months ago I saw a post on KixandtheCity.Com advertising the Future Sole Design Competition, run by Nike and Jordan Brand in order to find a new young and talented Footwear Designer. You can just imagine how happy I was that this was finally my chance, but imagine how sad I was when I found out that you had to be 14-19 to enter..... I really enjoyed being 20 up until that particular moment!

I was going to e-mail Future Sole and say how disheartened I was that my once chance to show my skills could now not be because of my age blah blah blah. But I didn't.

However, if I did send that email it would have probably gone to the inbox of this guy - D'Wayne Edwards, Design Director of Footwear for Jordan Brand, whose interview I was so moved by as I read it today. What's really weird though, is how at the bottom of his post is a picture of Jason, PursueThePassion.com has an article on him too. 

D'Wayne's interview is more in depth in comparison to Jason's but it is still worth reading just to know how he started, from designing shoe lace tips to working at Jordan Brand, he is the epitome of true passion and drive. 

The connection between the two guys and how it reflected back on me was so resounding when I read this. When asked what's the best piece of advice you can give he replied, 

"Try and find a mentor. Seriously. Try and find a mentor because mentors can help you. They did it already. So whatever you trying to do they did it already [...] The biggest thing is to find someone who you can talk to. If you're trying to do anything, any career opportunity, try and find a mentor or someone that, if they're not a mentor, at least is someone who can try to help you and guide you in the right direction. Because like I've said, they've done everything you want to do already. They can help save you a lot of time, and probably a lot of money, if you can find the right person to help you on your way ."

I immediately thought of Jason but also someone else I had contacted recently, Marcus Troy.

I thought back to all those times I had tried to pursue something, how someone had always been there to guide me. I've done promotion, street teams, hosting, retail, you name it and I have always been fortunate enough to be under the wing of someone who would help.

What D'wayne said and the connection it has to me gets weirder, " You never know who is sitting next to you. Just be aware of what your surroundings are"

This post is turning into a trilogy. I don't want to put reams and reams of text up on here. I like breaking my stories down and giving you all something to look forward to. 

Just remember that though, you never know who your sitting next to.

Part Three Coming Soon.