One in a Million

The Capitalization of Creativity

In a world where creativity has been caged by capitalism, the arts are no longer the soul’s playground but a high-stakes pursuit of fame, branding, and validation. What was once a natural, communal act—sketching in the dirt, singing by the fire, crafting beauty from the everyday—has now been repackaged into a binary: you’re either a genius or you’re invisible. This article explores how the commercialization and intellectualization of art have suffocated its joy, discouraging a generation of young creators who feel pressured to either “make it” or give up. But creativity was never meant to be exclusive. It is our birthright, a source of play, expression, and connection that belongs to everyone, regardless of audience or acclaim.

Reach out and Talk.

Please reach out if you related to anything in these articles or they trigger experiences in your own life.

A Note from Me to You

These articles are personal reflections — shaped by my experiences living in Africa, Asia, Europe, and the U.S. They’re not meant to be universal truths, but rather open windows into the cultural patterns I’ve witnessed and the questions they’ve stirred in me. Much of what I write here is about the quiet ways society can make us feel like we are the problem, when really, we’re responding in very human ways to a world that often feels disconnected or misaligned.

If something here resonates with you — if you’ve ever felt frustrated, misplaced, or just tired of trying to “fix” yourself to fit into systems that feel off — I’d love to hear from you. You’re not alone. This space is here to invite honest conversation, shared stories, and connection.

What are you navigating? What systems or beliefs have weighed on you? What are you hoping to shift?

I’d be honored to walk beside you on your path.

“We have come to value creative output only when it has a market value—forgetting that creativity is first and foremost a human impulse, not a product.”

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— Katie Pickard

What Golden Buzzers, OSCARS and Online Influencers have done to Genius.

The Ghosts of the Everyday Artist

There was a time when the creative force within us was part of everyday life. From cave paintings to pottery predating organized agriculture, artistry and play were embedded in human existence. We sang, danced, painted, sculpted—not for applause or Oscars, but because to be creative was natural playful and normal. This creative pulse wasn’t reserved for the few. It belonged to everyone.

Now, in the era of golden buzzers and billion-view TikToks, artistry has been commercialized, categorized, and capitalized. The creative spark—the daemon, as the Greeks called it—has been boxed into binary extremes: either you’re the next celebrity… or nothing.

Creativity Was Once Tribal, Shared, and Ubiquitous

In pre-industrial cultures, creative expression was part of ritual and rhythm. From African villages to Elizabethan England, storytellers, jugglers, musicians, dancers, weavers, and bakers all embodied creativity as a communal, joyful practice. In Covent Garden, musicians filled the streets; in Thai fishing villages, people sang at sunrise.

Artistry wasn’t a brand. It was a way of everyday life.

The village supported this creativity. There was no pressure to become something—just to create. In Japan, this echoes in the concept of Ikigai, where deep satisfaction is found in everyday craftsmanship.

The Rise of the ‘Genius’ Illusion and Intellectual Elitism

The modern West has replaced participation with performance. Genius is now considered rare, exclusive, often intellectualized, and commodified.

We’ve completely intellectualized the arts as if it’s something way out there… as if you have to be hyper intelligent and unusually talented to create something. This is insanity.

In truth, the word “genius” derives from the Latin genius—a guiding spirit. The Greeks spoke of the daemon or eudaemonia—not being a genius, but having one. Inspiration was once seen as a muse walking beside us, not a title reserved for prodigies. And everyone is born with a Genius.

Reference: Elizabeth Gilbert explains this beautifully in her TED Talk, “Your Elusive Creative Genius”.

The Modern Trap: Golden Buzzers and Capitalized Identity

The arts have been devoured by capitalism. You are either a viral sensation or nothing. There is no middle ground for the everyday artist.

This has created a new epidemic: creative paralysis.

Teenagers hide their poems and sketches out of fear. The moment they show potential, family and friends pressure them with expectations:

“Oh, you like to write? You could be the next JK Rowling!”

Suddenly, the joy of expression becomes a burden of performance and being the one to ‘make it’. Parents dream of retiring on their child’s potential. Creativity becomes a lottery ticket—not a way of life.

Where Are the Everyday Artists?

In a healthy creative ecosystem, there are local musicians in cafés, dancers in the park, sculptors and seamstresses as everyday professions.

I spent years trying to create everyday jobs for musicians in London—wine bars, tiny venues—but it was a hard feat. There was simply no culture for anything in the middle.

Art has been sucked into binary extremes. Celebrity or silence.

The Terror of Typecasting: Genre Syndrome

Before children can even follow a creative urge, they are branded.

“Oh, you’re going to be the next Jennifer Lawrence.”

“I think he could be the next Dan Brown.”

“He is so the next Mick Jagger.”

This genre syndrome suffocates authenticity. It prematurely compartmentalizes into commercialized strait jackets built for profit not playful satisfaction. It demands a commercial identity before the soul can even speak. The unborn fetus of an idea is thrown into the stadium arena of wolves before its organs have formed. Its suffocated strangled and handed a life debt before it had its first breath of air. Children withdraw. They stop drawing. They stop singing. They hide in their bedrooms, terrified of being seen—because to be seen is to be expected to perform and to BE the next genius.

What We’ve Lost: Playfulness, Craft, and FLOW

Creativity is meant to be playful. Ancient cultures knew this. The Greeks understood eudaemonia—a flourishing state where we align with our inner muse. Psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi later called it FLOW—being totally immersed in what we do.

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience.

We’ve made being creative so serious… there’s no time for playing around and having fun with the genius muse companion that we’re born with.

Whether it’s writing a song, baking bread, or building a mosaic, the satisfaction of working with our hands or our imagination is deeply human. Genius is not about being put on a pedal stool, it’s about being in FLOW.

“Everyone wanted to be a genius. So what did they do? They threw shit on the walls and called it art.”- Katie Pickard (In reference to the Brit Art Scene)

The Emporers Clothes of Contemporary Art

I was an emerging artist in the UK during the Brit art scene—Tracey Emin, Damien Hirst—and the intimidation of abstract elitism. Art became a pedestal for pseudo-intellectualism, where value was determined not by beauty, but by absurdity.

If you didn’t ‘get art’ you clearly were ‘missing’ a piece of intellectual perspective. The ‘quirkier’ it was clearly the more ‘genius’ it was because the average person couldn’t get it. Everyone would tell me instantly ‘I don’t get art, but I know what I like’. 

At the same time, crafts like pottery, jewelry, and breadmaking were dismissed as just ‘craft’—though they offer equal creative fulfillment. I spent years in libraries studying art history to understand what it was all about and the only thing I could come up with was that a painting is just a pretty picture.

The Resurrection for the Right to ‘Play’

I’m not suggesting anti-success—just anti-strangulation. For a return to play, craft, and flow—for the decentralization of genius and the de-commercialization of expression.

It’s a call for creative environments that honor the muse in everyone, regardless of fame, virality, or genre.

“The moment you ask ‘how will I monetize this?’ you risk killing the very soul of it.”
— Steven Pressfield, The War of Art

Key References

Elizabeth Gilbert – Your Elusive Creative Genius [TED Talk]

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi – Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience

Sir Ken Robinson – Do Schools Kill Creativity? [TED Talk]

Greco-Roman Philosophy – Genius/Daemon/Eudaemonia

Japanese Ikigai – Fulfillment in craft and everyday purpose

David Graeber – Bullshit Jobs (on the alienation of modern work)

Brene Brown – The Power of Vulnerability (on creative shame)

Yuval Noah Harari – On Homo sapiens as a storytelling species

“Capitalism has taken the joy of creating and turned it into a performance review.”

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— Rick Rubin

I’d Love to Hear From You

If anything in this article spoke to you, or sparked a thought, I’d love to hear about it. Whether you want to explore these ideas more deeply or simply share what’s going on in your life right now, you’re warmly invited to reach out. You don’t need to have it all figured out — I’m here to listen, reflect, and walk beside you in whatever part of the journey you’re in..

Return to the YOU are not the Problem

RESOURCES

Below is a List of Resources – Read, Watch, Listen and Be Inspired!

Books

On the Myth of Genius & the Democratization of Creativity

“Big Magic” – Elizabeth Gilbert
Explores creativity as a force that visits anyone, not just “geniuses.” Emphasizes play, curiosity, and permission.

“The Rise of the Creative Class” – Richard Florida
Details how creativity became commodified and stratified in modern society.

“Orbiting the Giant Hairball” – Gordon MacKenzie
A corporate artist’s guide to resisting conformity and reclaiming creativity through play.

“Steal Like an Artist” – Austin Kleon
Makes creativity accessible, arguing that nothing is original and all artists build upon each other.

“The Gift: Creativity and the Artist in the Modern World” – Lewis Hyde
Explores the idea of art as a gift economy, not a capitalist product.

On Play, Flow & Creative Safety

“Play: How It Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul” – Stuart Brown
Neuroscience and psychology of play as essential to creativity and human development.

“Flow” – Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
The classic book on the psychology of optimal experience and how true creative immersion arises.

“Ego Is the Enemy” – Ryan Holiday
Explores how ego disrupts creative play and replaces it with performance and fear.

“The War of Art” – Steven Pressfield
On resistance and the pressure to perform — also reinforces the idea of creativity as a daily practice rather than rare genius.

You Tube Videos

“The Genius Myth” – The School of Life
Critiques the societal obsession with “once-in-a-lifetime genius” over collective creativity.
Watch it here

“Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life” – Explains how daily craftsmanship brings satisfaction beyond fame.
Watch it here

“Why We Can’t Play Anymore” – Dr. Peter Gray
Educational psychologist on how lack of free play harms children’s development.
Watch it here

Documentaries

“Beautiful Losers” (2008)
Documentary about underground artists who rejected fame but shaped modern culture through everyday creativity and skate culture.

“The Creative Brain” (Netflix)
Neuroscientist David Eagleman explores where creativity comes from — and how we all have access to it.

“PressPausePlay” (2011)
On how digital democratization is giving everyone a creative voice — and how that threatens traditional gatekeepers of “genius.”

“Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” (2018)
Though not directly about art, this is a masterclass in quiet creativity, gentle influence, and human connection without celebrity ego.

TED Talks

Elizabeth Gilbert – “Your Elusive Creative Genius”
A viral talk on reframing the idea of genius as something you have rather than you are.
Watch it here

Ken Robinson – “Do Schools Kill Creativity?”
Legendary talk about how modern systems squash natural creativity and risk-taking in children.
Watch it here

David Kelley – “How to Build Your Creative Confidence”
On overcoming the fear of judgment and embracing everyday creativity.
Watch it here

Julie Lythcott-Haims – “What Makes a Good Life?”
A critique of perfectionism and pressure, especially in young people and creatives.

Podcasts

The Creative Pep Talk Podcast – Andy J. Pizza
Focuses on the messy middle ground of creativity and encouraging play over perfection.

The Good Life Project – Jonathan Fields
Frequent guests discussing permission, play, vulnerability, and living creatively outside of capitalism.

Unlocking Us – Brené Brown (especially interviews with creatives like Austin Kleon and Elizabeth Gilbert)

On Being – Krista Tippett
Rich conversations about the soul of creativity, artistic flow, and reclaiming purpose.

Research

Teresa Amabile – “How to Kill Creativity” (Harvard Business Review)
Explores how organizational pressure and evaluation kills intrinsic creative drive.

Howard Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences
Breaks down the myth of singular “genius” by emphasizing varied intelligences (bodily, musical, interpersonal, etc.).

“The Cult of Genius” – Scientific American
Investigates how talent myths discourage participation and creativity among youth, especially marginalized groups.

Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1996). “Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention”
Research-backed guide to creativity as a process, not a personality trait.