How David Bowie influenced Bernard Sleijster's life and business

Music has played a large role in my life. Especially when growing up, artists like David Bowie were of big impact on my choices and behaviour. I didn’t usually go for the mainstream top 40 artists, I preferred exploring different musicians from the more artistic side of the spectrum.

In my younger days I had the honour of seeing Bowie live on many occasions. Sometimes in very intimate and exclusive settings with just over a hundred people in the audience. I was even fortunate enough to have met his wife, Iman, although unfortunately I never did get the chance to meet David, before he passed away at the start of this year, on 10th January 2016.

The iconic David Bowie has influenced many decisions in my life, some of which I would like to share with you today:

Be creative and experiment

David Bowie has never been one to follow rules, be it in music, fashion or comments. He experimented on himself and his music and was never afraid to think outside the box. He once joked, “I re-invented my image so many times that I’m in denial that I was originally an overweight Korean woman.”

Not only has this played a role in my self confidence when I was growing up, but it also helped me in my business too. Bowie taught me how to be creative, to explore the unknown and to follow my intuition when it comes to creating something, be it a design project or a client pitch.

Don’t follow trends

If we all did the same thing, life would just be plain boring. David Bowie never followed trends, he created them. He was the first to fight for the right to have long hair on national television in 1964. He broke new ground with the first internet-only song release Telling Lies and was also the first musician to create an internet service provider, just to name a few.

He inspired me to think outside the box, in my personal and working life. From coming up with innovative marketing strategies for clients, to trying out new things with my kids, I am grateful to Bowie for inspiring me to do so.

Be yourself and don’t let criticism get to you

Millions of people around the world admired David Bowie for his courage to be who he is, no matter how crazy others thought he was. He did what he wanted and people loved him for being himself.

“I’m just an individual who doesn’t feel that I need to have somebody qualify my work in any particular way. I’m working for me.” ~ David Bowie.

Inspire others

Bowie said, “I suppose for me as an artist it wasn’t always just about expressing my work; I really wanted, more than anything else, to contribute in some way to the culture that I was living in.” And contribute he certainly did.

Bowie was not just an influential rocker. Among rock stars, he influenced more musical genres than anyone else, living or dead. Not to mention how many people he inspired to be themselves, think outside the box and challenge the norm.
Justin Timberlake tweeted it perfectly after Bowie´s passing: “I can never express into words how you will continue to inspire me… Thank you for showing a pimple-faced, curly-mopped kid that DIFFERENT was THE THING TO BE. A GENIUS for the ages and the ages to come.”

The world has lost a great artist, icon and friend, but I’m glad that we had him for the brief time that we did, as his life is sure to influence people for many more years to come.

~ Bernard Sleijster