The Expected Pace of Creativity

Over the last few months, I've thought a lot about the expected pace of creativity. 

Business says, Be super creative, and can you get this to us Friday?
Life says, Creativity? Who has time for that? Here's a shortcut.
But my heart? It keeps saying, Keep going, but don't rush this.

In college, a friend of mine joked about college life. He said you can pick two from this list: friends, good grades, or sleep, but you can never (never) have all three. 

In the design world, there's a similar metaphor. You can pick two from this list: fast, cheap, or good, but you can never (never) have all three. Need something fast and cheap? Don’t expect anything great. Want something fast and good? Sure thing, but that is 4x the normal cost. What about cheap and good? I can probably get this to you in a year or two.

But, maybe society has set our expectations too high. Amazon says you can have all three. Target says you can have all three. But is that really what we (creatives and business owners) are aiming for? To be high-churn, quick-turnaround service-based creatives who live for a single moment of recognition and a paycheck? 

If I’m not careful, I will require my team to do all three just because it's the expectation I’ve grown too used to in my own life. But who exactly is that serving? If I want to build a life whilebuilding a business, I want to create quality, long-lasting, big impact work, not fast, cheap work done just to pay bills. 

Just me?