Let Your Work Carry You Via Milan Rai

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Let Your Work Carry You Via Milan Rai

This is a story about Milan Rai who’s an artist living in Katmandu, Nepal. He was pondering a very complex project. He wanted it to shock his audience. As he was pondering, a small white butterfly landed on his paintbrush. He said, “I forgot what I was doing and became happy. The little butterfly was teaching me so much.”

So he created these butterflies and he started putting up these little white butterflies in public spaces in the city and on billboards and on trees. And they drew people’s attention taking them out of their daily routines for a moment, and he said, “And bringing them some simple poetry from an unexpected place.”

And then people started writing to him. The butterflies have gone to 41 countries and he considers them a message of love and hope and peace. And of course he didn’t plan that, it happened very organically and spontaneously from that day that the little butterfly flew onto his paintbrush.

Then, a woman asked if she could make her own butterfly and write the name of her daughter on its wings. And he said that at the time many companies were asking to collaborate and make money on the butterfly, turning it into a logo or some kind of business that would make money. And he didn’t want to mix the commerce with his art and what the butterfly represented. But he relented because he’d asked her why she wanted to write the name on the butterfly and she said, “Tomorrow is the six year anniversary of my daughter’s death and I want to write her name on a butterfly and put it on a tree.” That touched him and he gave her permission to do this.

Follow your heart

Then other people started asking if they could do the same. So after all these people put butterflies there was a tree and it was covered with these beautiful white butterflies with the names of people’s loved ones.

And that just happened by itself. That happened so organically. I love the way it began with this inspiration of trying to do something, trying to put a piece of work out in the world in a certain way and then being led in another direction. So it’s let your work carry you.

Then something else happened that led Milan Rai in another direction. Because after the earthquake happened, there were lots of people there but they didn’t have toilets. There were only four. So he took this on as a project. He really wanted to preserve people’s both health and their dignity. He said girls had told him, “We have to wait until dark to relieve ourselves.” One girl was even refusing to eat because she knew that she would then have to go to the bathroom and use the toilet.

So he went to Facebook and Twitter and in one hour people starting coming out of their homes carrying all these tools. By 7 PM that night they had built 47 toilets. He said, “He was first known as the butterfly man and now he’s also known as the toilet man.” And he says “But it doesn’t matter to me whether I am the butterfly man or the toilet man. I’ve always wanted to become a great artist but now I want to become a good human being.”

And I love that story. I love it for a couple reasons. Number one, that sometimes we intend something or we want it out in the world in a certain way and we’re taken in another direction. And number two, I love that he followed his impulses in both of these instances that led him in a direction that brought him through emotion and other people chiming into a project that he didn’t have a vision of how it would evolve and it evolved organically on its own.

This is the best kind of publicity. This is the best way that our work can get out in the world without forcing it into a certain shape or way that it needs to be. And to let it take a life of its own. And then to be able to expand our horizons. Maybe he didn’t want to become known as the toilet man too, but what a great thing that he did for the community that he could bring both beauty, the butterflies and practicality, the toilets to his community.

So I say, let yourself be carried in the direction that you’re led and allow those kind of influences that move you to bring your gift into the world.

RESOURCES

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Are you enjoying the Podcast? Then I invite you to hop on over to iTunes to subscribe, rate + review it. Here’s a quick video on how to do a podcast review on iTunes. (It’s simple if you follow these directions). Note: It can take up to 24 hours to show up on my Podcast. You’re welcome to send this to anyone you think it would delight. May good fortune always follow you!

Want to know how to subscribe on your phone? Watch this video.

Want to be a guest on my Podcast? Jet me an email with your topic and a link to your bio here.

Send Susan a Voice Message!

Click below to send me your voice message with a question or topic you’d like to hear more about in my upcoming podcasts! I will answer the most pressing and popular ones in a future episode. (I’ll mention your first name ONLY to protect your privacy.)

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