“Part: 13 Listen to Michael Davis’s In Search Of Heroes Interview” by Ralph Zuranski
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Ralph Zuranski: Sort of a reflection of real life.
Michael Davis: That is exactly what it is. The city that all this takes place in is called the City of New Hope, or New Hope City. There are different neighborhoods which reflect different ethnicities, just like any other city.
Ralph Zuranski: Well, how important is it to have trusted friends or a mastermind group to bounce your ideas off?
Michael Davis: You know what? For the most part in my life I have been a loner. I am not a joiner, which is fascinating now that I work in Urban Ministries, because I actually love that company. The majority of my life I have made a living all by myself, sitting in a room and not having to deal with the whole corporate thing. They are such a great company that it is really like a family. It’s like a family business, it really is.
I generally don’t share a lot of stuff with people. I will get feedback from the artists and writers at Urban Ministries, and the people who are working on this stuff. But I am not one to show cousins and people, “Hey, do you want to take a look?” I just don’t do that. I really don’t like talking about my work with people who do it, because there is a disconnect. But lately I have spent a lot of time talking to people, like my best friend runs the animations on BET, so we spend a lot of time talking about certain projects we might want to do together, bouncing things back and forth. That is actually how we created Milestone. We were sitting around thinking about what would be cool, and then we said, “Hey, why don’t we make a company out of this?”
So on that end it is very, very important for the big picture, but for the little things, in my day to day business and creativity, it is pretty much done before anybody sees it. Then whatever feedback I get, I change it if I have to or I make notes. I am not about to get up and say to my wife when I finish something, “Hey, Baby, want to see this and tell me how great I am?” I am just not that guy.
Ralph Zuranski: I was thinking more along the lines of your mentorship program and how important it is that people who are successful mentor other people.
Michael Davis: Now that is a different question, Ralph. That is absolutely, extremely important. One of the great things about the mentor program is when you take these kids to a professional artist’s studios and you see the look on the faces of these kids when they see that you can do this. You can live like this. You can have an exciting life doing what you love.
Like one of the things I used to do when I lived in New York, we get a lot of resistance from inner city parents, because you want your kids to be doctors or lawyers, or to go to a trade school or something. But art? Oh, come on now, that is crazy!
What I would do is have a parents’ night where I would invite all the parents to my house. They would come to my house and it was pretty nice, and they would see how I was living, and I would say “I made every single cent for everything that you see in this home as an illustrator, and I think your son or daughter is as talented if not more talented than I am. And they actually have a jump on what it is that they’re doing because I did not have anybody helping me at this level.”
I had people supporting me but I wasn’t working with an illustrator, I wasn’t working with a photographer, I wasn’t working with a writer. I just had people telling me it was okay that I did it. And that is important. So a lot of these problems these young artists have, they go home and they are beat down by their friends and families. “Why are you doing that? You should go out and get a real job.”
I actually had a girlfriend tell me that. I won’t say her name. I haven’t seen her in 20 years. With my luck, she will read this. When I lost my job, I was teaching during the day, and at night I would work on my portfolio. When I lost my job and came home, instead of telling me “Don’t worry about it, Baby, you will find another job,” she told me to give up this pipe dream of being an illustrator and get a real job. And the next day she came home with an application to the post office! It was not supportive. So it is extremely important.
Ralph Zuranski: Do you think some of our worst enemies are family and friends that love us and don’t want to see us get hurt?
Michael Davis: I won’t say they are enemies, but I certainly will say they are some of our deterrents. Here’s the thing. An enemy is out to do you harm. Family and friends really think they are helping you by telling you that you don’t want to do that. They really think they are helping you. Enemies want to see you self?destruct. But absolutely, one of the worst things to happen to you is to have someone you love and respect tell you that you can’t do something.
And you know what? If you can’t do it, you will eventually find out that that is not for you. But you should be the one making that decision. I am all for people giving other people constructive criticism, but at the end of that constructive criticism there should be these words: “You need to work harder so you can get better.” As opposed to, “You suck. Do something else.”
Ralph Zuranski: Yeah. Do you think it is important to surround yourself with people who support your dream rather than people who try to crush it?