8 Creatives Share How They Turned Their Passion into a Career

Embark on your own journey to creative growth with top advice on how to build a meaningful career from Domestika teachers

Whether due to recent world events, or something more personal, many of us feel increasingly driven toward finding our purpose. Considering work is such an important part of our lives, making a career change can have many benefits, fostering lifelong learning and personal growth.

A career that centers your ikigai (a Japanese concept loosely translated to “reason for being”) might be the dream. But how do we overcome self-doubt and find the career move that will help us flourish? We spoke with eight creative professionals and Domestika teachers about the best career lessons they’ve learned and how they crafted new paths by pivoting jobs, specializing in their passions, or prioritizing their own projects.

No matter what your stage of life, it’s never too late (or early!) to change your career path. Whatever career crossroads lie ahead of you, here’s eight pieces of advice to spark your imagination on your journey to creative growth!

1. Confidence and overcoming doubt

Self-doubt is the bully in many creative heads! Here, three illustrators reveal their own advice for this issue.

Adolfo Serra on self-doubt

Adolfo Serra (@adolfoserra) studied Advertising and PR at university, but soon turned towards his true passion: drawing. Nowadays, he’s a professional illustrator with many awards to his name. He shared this story…

“When I started art school I was very insecure. I went back to school in my thirties and was surrounded by students much younger than me who had been drawing intensively for years. I felt not only older, but clumsy, and had doubts about whether this path was for me, whether I had the knowledge or the talent to become a professional illustrator. Luckily, a teacher realized this and gave me the best advice not only for my profession but also for my life: ‘If you are here, it's for a reason, don't limit yourself.’

"If you are here, it's for a reason, don't limit yourself", Adolfo Serra

It seems like simple advice, but the truth is we’re often the ones who set limits on our opportunities, jobs, and dreams. Sometimes we hesitate or make them smaller when I think the key is just that: not to limit ourselves. To keep trying and enjoying it, be it in a job, an illustration, or in life.”

Gabriela Niko on perfectionism

Gabriela Niko (@gabrielaniko) is a freelance illustrator and sketchbook artist specializing in portrait art. She tells us:

“For many years I struggled with perfectionism. It blocked me from developing my artistic skills. I've always liked sketchbooks, but I'd never been able to keep them. After a few pages of unsuccessful drawings, I always came to the conclusion that I couldn't draw. I ended up with a lot of abandoned sketchbooks, and a lack of self-confidence.

However, one day I found videos of other artists presenting their sketchbooks on YouTube. It struck me that their sketchbooks weren't as perfect as I thought. There were failed attempts, blank pages, scribbles, notes, magazine clippings, color swatches... It was life-changing!

"My life and career path changed completely because I allowed myself not to be perfect," Gabriela Niko

For the last three years I have been drawing almost every day—I’ve already completed six sketchbooks. I started an Instagram account that became popular (@doodle_traffic), and a year ago I quit my nine-to-five to explore my new creative freedom.

My life and career path changed completely because I allowed myself not to be perfect. Thanks to this, failures are not so painful for me anymore. I know learning isn’t linear and I can always have a bad day. I still struggle with the perfectionist voice in my head but I'm much better at soothing it now.”

Nubia Navarro on receiving criticism

Nubia (@nubikini) is a graphic designer who is passionate about typography and letters. She notes:

“During my career, I've heard a lot of people say ‘don’t take anything personally', but I’m a very emotional person, so of course, I've taken stuff personally a few times in the past. It’s something I try to keep in mind—when it comes to work, and even more so in design—it’s very important to receive criticism in the best way to be able to build a team with other people. This is something I’m still learning about every day.

"It’s very important to receive criticism in the best way", Nubikini

Recognizing this has had a very positive impact, since sometimes it’s difficult for me to look at criticism as something that doesn’t interrupt my process, but rather as the cement that we sometimes need to be able to build something solid. Now, every time I receive comments about my work, I try to be as objective as possible, to look beyond the few simple words to find what will help me in my process.”

2. Staying true to you, no matter what

Many creatives are familiar with others not understanding their choices or feeling limited by client work. In both cases, choosing to pursue personal goals can be empowering.

Ji Lee on personal projects

Ji Lee (@jilee) is Creative Director at Facebook and Instagram, an author, and creator of projects such as Word as Image and Drawings for My Grandchildren. He says:

“The best way to succeed and have a fulfilling career is to focus on doing personal projects. When you work on personal projects and share them with the world, you’re expressing something pure and unique which only you can do. It’s not for a client, it doesn’t have a commercial purpose. It’s there because you feel passionate about something and people connect to this deeply. It will help open many opportunities outside, and also for inside, through self-realization and growth.

"Through making my personal projects, I gained a great self-confidence and the belief that I can do anything I want without help from my boss or my clients," Ji Lee

I owe pretty much everything positive that happened in my career to my personal projects. People at amazing companies like Droga5, Google, and Meta wanted to hire me because they felt connected to my projects. But more importantly, through making them I gained great self-confidence and the belief that I can do anything I want without help from my boss or my clients. Having this confidence has been life-changing.”

Dot Lung on unhelpful criticism

Dot Lung (@dotlung) is a social media expert who helps clients build digital empires, having worked with industry giants like Facebook and Wix. She tells us:

“Do not take advice or criticism on your work or creations from someone that has never created anything, or isn’t where you want to be in life. Do take feedback from people that have been there before, that can actually help you get a shortcut instead of taking in criticism from others that won’t help your career.

"Do not take criticism on your creations from someone that has never created anything... Do take feedback from people that have been there before," Dot Lung

Sadly, the moment I decided to stop listening to my parents was when my career took off. They didn’t and still don’t understand what I do, but tried to give me advice on a career that never existed in their generation. When I stopped letting the opinions that don’t matter affect me, and started believing in myself and trusting the path I was on, I was closer to success.”

3. Staying consistent

From starting out with a side hustle to keeping the faith you can make it, two creatives share their thoughts on building a dream life brick by brick.

Alicia Aradilla on creative routines

Alicia Aradilla (@a_aradilla) is a travel illustrator and watercolorist. In 2017 she quit her job at an ad agency to travel and document the world in watercolor, amassing a great social media following. She says:

“If there's one thing I've learned, it's the importance of being consistent in your work. There are projects that turn out better or worse, but working daily makes you come up with new ideas, learn from your mistakes, and move forward in your career.

"The routine of making between two and three drawings helped me develop my own style and improve my technique," Alicia Aradilla

During my year-long journey of painting around the world, the routine of making between two and three drawings a day not only made me develop my own style and improve my technique, but also helped me consolidate a community when I published my work each day. Thanks to that perseverance and effort, today I can dedicate myself to my passion and make a living as an illustrator.”

72kilos on determination

Oscar Alonso, aka 72kilos (@72kilos), is an illustrator and cartoon artist. He recounts the events of his day-to-day life and shares his inner universe on Instagram, while collaborating with big-name brands such as Adidas. He says:

“The best advice I got was ‘do it always and do it slowly’. It’s difficult to understand when you’re starting and you have lots of energy and plans for the future. There are millions of stairs to climb. Just climb one after another.

"The best advice I got was ‘do it always and do it slowly’," 72kilos

I had my job as a copywriter while doing my drawings and cartoons at night. I went to bed pretty late, but had this feeling that everything was going in the right direction. There were many downturns and bitter moments, but I kept going. I filled sketchbooks without realizing I was improving. As more commissions appeared, my personal style came out naturally and things flourished.

I know I’m still on that learning journey. Both good and bad experiences are part of the process. I do it always and do it slowly.”

4. Connecting the dots

Pursuing a new path, or recalibrating your current one, will be a rollercoaster, but as our last teacher explains, it’s part of the process.

Laura Varsky on finding meaning

Laura Varsky (@lau_varsky) is a designer, illustrator, and typography teacher, who won the 2006 Latin Grammy Award as an Art Director. ​She concludes:

“When we feel that we’re about to start on a new path, I think it’s important to understand that we aren’t starting from zero. All of the learning, invaluable experiences, and raw material we bring with us will be incorporated into our new journey. All creative work needs a broad knowledge, a sensitivity towards the interdisciplinary. The key is knowing how to see (and take advantage of) the threads that connect everything.

"All of the learning, invaluable experiences, and raw material we bring with us will be incorporated into our new journey," Laura Varsky

I always have a hard time defining what I do within a single field. I like jumping from one place to another. Sometimes it’s difficult to explain that to people: they expect a concrete answer. However, for me it’s clear that everything is connected, all the time. That’s precisely what I feel enriches me: the attempt to always learn new and different things without knowing how they’ll come back later. ‘What will this lead to?’ It is something that I ask myself very often, and the answer always pleasantly surprises me.”

Have you found these tips useful? Share your thoughts in the comments.

Illustrations by @maja_dabek.

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