The creative journey is rarely linear. It's filled with moments of breakthrough and periods of dense fog, times when inspiration flows freely and others when every stroke feels forced. For visual artist Tobyato, who has painted his way across Singapore's walls and collaborated with brands from Nike to Uniqlo, the path to sustainable creativity lies not in conventional wisdom, but in three counterintuitive principles that challenge how we think about motivation, perfectionism, and persistence.
The Power of Negative Motivation: "Self-Praise is No Praise"
While most self-help advice focuses on positive reinforcement, Toby has discovered something different about his creative process: he responds better to what he calls "negative motivation." This isn't about self-destruction or toxic self-criticism, it's about caring so deeply that you push yourself harder.
"Self-praise is no praise"
Toby explains, referencing a phrase that has guided him since childhood.
"I strongly believe that everybody that says they're the shit is not the shit. Other people need to say that you're the shit."
This approach stems from a deeper understanding of care and motivation. In Chinese culture, there's a concept called "骂是爱 (ma shi ai)", to scold is to love. When you care deeply about someone or something, you're willing to push for excellence, even if it means being hard on yourself.
For Toby, this translates into internal dialogue like: "Why are you so slow? You used to be drawing faster." Rather than being destructive, this self-criticism becomes fuel for improvement.
The key insight: Understanding your personal motivation style is crucial. Some creatives thrive on positive reinforcement; others respond to challenge and internal pressure. Ask yourself what truly motivates you, and more importantly, why.
Complete But Not Perfect: The Art of Knowing When to Stop
One of the most paralysing questions for creatives is: "When is it done?" Perfectionism can lead to endless revisions and work that never ships.
Toby's solution: "It's complete but not perfect."
Complete doesn't mean the work is perfect, it means the process has run its course. Maybe the timeline is complete, or you've done your best within the constraints. The work has served its purpose, even if it doesn't match your initial vision perfectly.
This comes with an important caveat: "Mediocrity as an intention is not okay. As a result, it's fine." If you never aimed for mediocre work, falling short of perfection is acceptable. External factors may affect reception, but those are beyond your control.
The liberation: This mindset frees creatives to ship work, learn from feedback, and iterate rather than remaining trapped in endless revision cycles.
Never Quit on a Bad Day: Navigating the Creative Fog
Every creative faces periods that feel like running through dense fog—you're moving but can't see progress clearly. The temptation is to quit during these difficult times.
Toby's approach: "Never quit on a bad day. Quit on a good day knowing you could have done it."
This isn't about never quitting, it's about making decisions from the right emotional state. When everything feels difficult, you can't trust your judgment about the bigger picture.
"Every storm runs out of rain," Toby reminds himself. No matter how dense the fog or how stuck you feel, the situation will change. The key is persistence without panic—keep moving because movement through fog eventually leads to clearer air.
Building Self-Awareness: Your Creative Operating System
These principles point to a larger truth: success comes from understanding your own operating system and working with it rather than against it.
Toby describes himself as naturally reactive, adapting to opportunities as they arise rather than creating detailed plans. He's learned to trust this nature:
"If I've been able to reactively adapt over the past six years, then I should be able to continue to do so."
He also knows he needs constraints to be creative: "If you give me a blank piece of paper, I will literally have nothing to draw. You need a box to think out of the box."
Practical Applications
1. Audit Your Motivation Style: Understand what actually motivates your best work—positive encouragement, deadlines, peer pressure, or internal criticism.
2. Define "Complete" Upfront: Before starting projects, establish what "complete" looks like to avoid endless revisions.
3. Create Progress Markers: Develop systems for recognising progress—portfolios, journals, or periodic reviews. Progress in creative fields is often invisible day-to-day but dramatic over time.
4. Build a "Bad Day" Protocol: Develop strategies for difficult periods—trusted advisors, exercise routines, or simply remembering that storms pass.
The Long Game
Toby's metaphor of creative careers as "an endless F1 race" where "the finishing line constantly shifts" captures an important truth: sustainable success isn't about reaching a final destination but staying in the race and adapting to changing conditions.
The fog will lift, the storm will pass, and the work will get done (not perfectly), but completely. And in that completion lies the foundation for whatever comes next.
To learn more about Tobyato’s artistic journey and bold motivations, be sure to watch and listen to the full episode of the Wild & Wise Podcast.
Hosted by Gerald Ang, this podcast is a space where creative business minds come to explore how to stay sharp, relevant, and future-ready in a world that keeps changing. Whether you’re an artist, team leader, freelancer, or curious thinker, you’ll gain valuable insights into how to stay adaptable, purposeful, and inspired in fast-changing times.
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The term "Hunn-verse" comes from thinking of your life as your own personal universe, similar to how you might talk about the "Marvel-verse" or "Star Wars universe." It's your personal world where you decide what matters, what success looks like, and how you want to experience everything.
In your personal universe, you're not just following someone else's script. Most of us inherit our life's structure from external expectations. Our careers become our identities, our possessions define our worth, and our schedules dictate our priorities. But the Hunn-verse suggests a different approach: your life is a collection of systems you can design—relationships, finances, health, creativity, and learning. When your current patterns of thinking create problems instead of solutions, you can consciously choose to rewrite the rules of your personal universe.
The Discipline of Enough
Central to building your personal universe is mastering the concept of "enough." We live surrounded by voices telling us we need more: more income, more space, more experiences, more everything. This creates a perpetual state of reaching for the next thing, only to find that each achievement quickly becomes the new normal.
Your personal universe approach involves intentional experimentation. What happens when you spend a week eating only simple, whole foods? How does it feel to drive the fancy car versus taking public transit? By consciously exploring different experiences, you gather data about what actually contributes to your well-being versus what you've been conditioned to believe you need.
This isn't about deprivation, it's about calibration. When you know your true minimum for happiness, everything above that becomes genuine abundance rather than anxious accumulation. You begin to operate from gratitude rather than scarcity, making decisions from choice rather than compulsion.
Living in High Resolution
Hunn advocates for experiencing life in "4K or 8K resolution" instead of the blurry, distracted 240p that characterises much of modern existence. This means cultivating what Zen practitioners call "beginner's mind"—approaching familiar experiences with fresh curiosity and deep attention.
Consider your next meal not just as fuel, but as a story. Who grew these ingredients? What weather patterns and soil conditions contributed to their flavour? What traditions and techniques went into their preparation? This kind of curious attention transforms routine consumption into a rich, interconnected experience. You begin to see the web of relationships that make your life possible.
Building Your Personal Universe
Your "-verse" isn't a destination, it's an ongoing practice. It's the work of examining your life's systems, questioning inherited assumptions, and making deliberate choices about how you want to exist.
This means regularly asking: Which aspects of my life am I running on autopilot? What would I design differently if I were starting fresh today? How can I create more alignment between my deepest values and my daily actions?
Whether you call it the Hunn-verse, the [Your Name]-verse, or simply "my life by design," the invitation is the same: step back from the life that's happening to you, and begin creating the life you actually want to live in your own personal universe.
The Journey Behind the Philosophy
These insights come from Hunn Wai, a co-founder of Lanzavecchia + Wai design studio, whose own life exemplifies the personal universe approach. Educated both in Singapore and Eindhoven, his journey spans winning product designs and healthcare innovations to digital explorations like NFTs. Most recently, he co-curated Future Impact 3 at Milan Design Week and the Washi Paper, Craft X Tech Project.
Is Craftsmanship Dying? A Creative Director's Take on AI and the Future of Art
In a world increasingly shaped by artificial intelligence and a relentless culture of speed, a pertinent question arises for creatives: Is craftsmanship dying? According to Jonny Tan, a seasoned creative director with a career spanning continents and groundbreaking campaigns, the answer is nuanced, but the concerns are palpable.
"The advent of new technology and new possibilities… It's like a person sort of games and you collect tools," Johnny observes, drawing a vivid analogy. "And when the more tools you collect, the toys you have, the weapons you have, it's like the more badass you become." This abundance of "bazookas and whatnot" at a creative's disposal, while empowering, also presents a curious paradox. It makes us "less reliant on the pure craft of solving a problem," he warns.
The Vanishing Act of Hand-Drawn Art
Johnny, who has witnessed the creative industry's seismic shifts firsthand, highlights a disturbing trend: the vanishing of hand-drawn storyboards. "In the last year or so, I haven't seen a hand-drawn storyboard," he laments. Instead, everything is "crafted because somebody wrote a prompt and it came out. It was beautiful." While acknowledging the undeniable power of AI to "level up the game," Johnny believes it simultaneously strips away "finer things of creativity."
The "Blur" of Accelerated Creativity
His concern isn't about shunning AI entirely. He’s a "big fan of what AI could do," but he worries about the accelerated pace leading to a "blur" in the creative process. Filmmakers, for instance, traditionally consider every detail – camera movements, cuts, the subtle nuances of a close-up versus a wide shot. He recalls a timeless piece of advice from Steven Spielberg: "You want to learn how to make a film, watch movies and turn the volume off." This exercise forces an understanding of the deliberate choices made in crafting a visual narrative. With AI-generated content, Johnny suggests, these crucial considerations often take a backseat.
The Tactile Core of True Craftsmanship
"Craftsmanship has a combination of things," he explains. "Both a very visceral thing and at the same time it's also a very tactile thing." This vital combination, he believes, is what makes something truly special. AI, by its very nature, might accelerate production, but in doing so, it risks losing the “magic of craft.”
Over-Reliance vs. True Innovation
The core of the issue, Johnny argues, isn't the tool itself, but an over-reliance on its convenience. Just as a soldier relying solely on GPS might lose the ability to navigate independently, creatives empowered by AI might forgo the fundamental understanding of their art. AI can certainly provide a push, an initial spark when faced with the daunting "white piece of paper." However, he cautions against the temptation to let it become the sole solution.
The Enduring Value of Human Voice and Vision
For Johnny, the fundamental tools a creative must possess remain constant: "the ability to find a compelling original solution and an effective one." While AI can aid in achieving that, it's crucial not to lose sight of the human element. Curation, for example, becomes paramount. If everyone uses the same tools, the inevitable outcome is a sea of "vanilla" products. It's the unique point of view, the individual taste, and the distinct vision that elevate a piece of work from good to truly great.
Preserving the Magic
"I still don't know how that would look," Johnny admits regarding a future where this trend continues. But he is certain of one thing: "I certainly don't think that's going to be a great future." The vibrant tapestry of human creativity, with its imperfections, its struggles, and its triumphs of dedicated craftsmanship, is too precious to lose to the allure of instant gratification. The future of art, it seems, hinges on creatives remembering that while AI can be a powerful co-pilot, the human hand must always remain on the steering wheel.
The Uncomfortable Truths of Leadership: How to Make the Right Decision and Bridge the Generational Gap in the Workplace
Being a leader isn't just about keeping things the same. It's about figuring out how to handle a fast-moving landscape where tough calls are often the right calls, and where understanding how leadership has evolved across different generations is super important. Paul Soon, a seasoned pro in the creative business, recently shared some thoughts that really connect these two ideas on the Offscript, part of the Wild & Wise Podcast.
The Core of Modern Leadership
One of Paul's most honest moments was talking about the "uncomfortable truths" of being a leader. He especially highlighted those tricky times when leaders have to deliver tough news. He stressed that taking the easy way out is rarely the best way. "When a decision is too easy, sometimes it may not be the right decision," Paul pointed out. This really hits home when you think about how it impacts your team. For example, telling long-time employees their time with the company is ending takes a huge amount of empathy and bravery. It's more than just a severance package. Leaders need to put the individual's dignity and future first, even if it goes against typical corporate goals focused purely on profit.
Authenticity, Empathy, and the New Leadership Paradigm
This dedication to making principled decisions, even when they're not popular, directly relates to how younger generations see leadership today. The old "do what I say" style, common in the past, is quickly being replaced by a demand for authenticity, transparency, and empathy. Young leaders, often thrown into positions of power as founders or quickly promoted, might not have as much experience as those who came before them. They're living in a world where information is instantly available, and they might even get leadership advice from AI tools like ChatGPT.
But Paul makes a key point: while AI can offer a "cheat sheet" for certain situations, it can't give you the real-life experience that builds true resilience and determination. Today's generation values leaders who are vulnerable yet strong, willing to own their mistakes, and consistent in their values. This is quite different from the past, where leaders might have felt they had to appear perfect. "If you commit to the journey of wanting to lead, then you've got to live. You're going to make your mistakes," Paul says.
The challenge for leaders today, no matter their age, is to find that sweet spot. It's about having the courage to make tough choices that might be uncomfortable or go against the grain, while also creating a workplace built on psychological safety and trust. This means looking beyond just revenue and growth, and asking deeper questions like: "How have your people developed?"
Ultimately, bridging the gap between generations in leadership isn't about one group copying another. It's about all leaders recognising that the heart of good leadership is about being consistent, empathetic, and ready to make hard decisions from a place of genuine care. When leaders show these qualities, they not only get things done but also inspire and develop the next generation of leaders to do the same.