Create - Marc Silber

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Burkard is an accomplished explorer, photographer, creative director, speaker, and author. His visionary perspective has earned him opportunities to work on global, prominent campaigns with Fortune 500 clients, speak on the TED stage, design product lin es, educate, and publish a growing collection of books. Through social media, Chris strives to share his vision of wild places with millions of people, and to inspire them to explore for themselves. At the age of thirty-two, Burkard has established himself as a global presence and influencer. And he has a managed to navigate his dynamic career while also raising a family.

      I’ve known Chris for ten years. His first book The California Surf Project caught my eye because it was so fresh and alive. I then invited him on Advancing Your Photography, my YouTube show, and found his artistic advice and his ability to capture moments were spot on. It’s no wonder he has over three million followers on Instagram, it seems we can’t get enough of him.

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      When did you first flip the switch to having a fully creative life?

      I made the choice when I was nineteen and I quit my job and quit school to pursue photography. At the time it wasn’t really about creativity. It was just more about making a living, doing something that I loved, and I think the concept of embracing some sort of career path that would lead me to interesting places and interesting people and an understanding of the world was really my draw.

      I think that inadvertently it led me to a place where creativity kind of reigned supreme. It led me to a place where I could foster creativity; that’s always been my biggest takeaway. Creativity is not something you just have all the time, you have to set parameters, you have to create barriers or walls or guidelines for yourself to live with so that you could foster a creative life or foster a creative environment.

      That’s really the key component. I think for me over time things have become more and more creative or I’ve been able to operate in a more and more creative capacity because I’ve done that.

      What were the biggest barriers you had to overcome to make that happen?

      A big one was just mainly dealing with my own self-worth and self-validation. When you submit your work and you never have any type of positive feedback, it can be really challenging. That’s a really hard thing to do. I think the first and biggest struggle people deal with is self-worth. You have to come to—“my work is valuable.” That’s a conclusion you have to come to on your own. And that’s a really hard one to just figure out.

      How did you come to that conclusion?

      I didn’t. I decided slowly over time, like dew forming: it’s super slow, you can’t even watch it, there’s no turning point. People always ask me, “When did they just click?” And there’s no such thing as when things click. If you want to talk about overnight success, it took twelve years of overnight success. The reality is I chose not to think about that. I just put my head down and did my work and there were small successes along the way. There were a lot of failures for the most part. I think that what you find is that even if you do receive great praise from one of your heroes, that’s only going to take you so far.

      At a certain point, you have to realize that all that validation, all of that earning a paycheck, collecting stamps in your passport—is not going to mean anything to you unless you find a purpose greater than those things, a purpose that creates passion. Passion alone is not creative. Nobody ever said, “I’m passionate about what I do because somebody said so.” Or “I’m passionate about what I do because it pays the bills.” That’s not true. That’s totally the opposite.

      So I think it’s key to understand that at a certain point you have to figure out what you’re passionate about and you have to foster that. Usually that requires some introspection and some time for reflection—a spirit quest, whatever you want to call it, to understand what makes you you and what drives you. For me it was the ability to share stories with my family, those who sacrificed a lot for me, and my mom. I think I felt really indebted to her for raising me and for other reasons. So I’m just giving you a very simple slice of what drives me. But ultimately that’s really what it comes down to.

      What are the successful actions that really make creativity happen for you?

      Having a good routine. Surrounding yourself with positive people or influences. Identifying the positive things in your life and the negative. Fleshing out your mission statement and what it actually means to you.

      The key thing is that you don’t need to be good at everything and you don’t need to tell yourself you’re good at everything, or try to convince yourself or other people. Therefore, when you’re showing your portfolio or you’re sharing your website, don’t try to convince people that you can shoot the action and landscapes and portraits and everything. That’s not needed. You’re hired because you’re a specialist and because you’re the best at what you do. And really that’s what you want to do. You want to hone that skill.

      What advice do you have for someone who wants to put more creativity and art into their life?

      I’ve always looked at these things as a career path; how do you want to achieve this as a career path? How do you want to do this to build your name and reputation? It’s pretty straightforward: surround yourself with things that inspire you. If you don’t know what inspires you, go out and try new things.

      For thousands of years, we have lived outdoors. It’s only been the last couple hundred years that we have been an indoor culture. So deep inside of us, in our most innate self, we are craving to ignite all of our senses. Living indoors shuts off certain parts of your senses. You don’t have to live with those senses because you don’t have to worry about where your food comes from.

      So you need to get to a place where you’re using all of those senses. You’re finding out what it is you’re passionate about and that really requires you to experience new things. I can’t express that enough. I think that most of society is a bit too complacent and a bit too looking-for-handouts as opposed to working for one.

      How do you add creativity to your life as a parent?

      When it comes to adding creativity as a parent, you simply have to realize that your goal as a parent is to foster creativity. For me at least, it’s not really to lead or to instruct or to demonstrate, it’s to foster it, because kids are born with it. You don’t need to teach them how to be creative, you don’t have to teach them how to be imaginative, you just have to create scenarios where they can do that and let it flourish.

      A big part of it is learning how to be hands-off at times and how to create an environment—and nowadays creating that environment might be less screen time and more time creating outdoors, or making your own games or playing theirs. Also when your children do find something that they are passionate about or inspired by, then allowing and supporting that, going all-in with them and letting them really feel the whole thing and experience it. That’s a big benefit that we can provide them as well.

      Chapter Two

      “The purpose of art is washing the dust of

      daily life off our souls.”

      —Pablo Picasso

      Before we take a deeper dive into the cycle of creativity, let’s take look at your purpose for adding creativity to your life.

      First, let’s look at the definition of “purpose” from the Oxford American Dictionary:

      “The reason for which something is done or created or for which something exists.” It is derived from propose “influenced by Latin propositus ‘put or set forth’ and Old French poser ‘to place.’ ”

      When you have

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