One of the recurring themes of this blog and my work in general is that all artists are entrepreneurs. Or, I should say, all materially successful artists are entrepreneurs. I do not wish to detract from artists who have no wish to be materially successful, but realize that this is a choice. One chooses to not make money or be famous from one’s art, and if you choose this, you can’t then complain about not getting any.
And realize too that being true to your muse is not mutually exclusive with being materially successful. This is a common objection raised by unsuccessful artists, but it’s just a limiting belief. If you believe in the image of the suffering artist, that’s exactly what you will create. Every time an artist justifies their meager existence to me by telling me about someone who was not appreciated in their time but achieved great posthumous fame and whose art came to be worth great sums, I simply say it’s proof that there was an audience for this art, and if only the artist had been a better entrepreneur, the world would have been able to experience the greatness of the art much earlier. If Van Gogh had been better at selling, who knows what art that freedom would have enabled him to create? My belief is that he would have still created everything we know, and then even more, and art of even greater meaning and authenticity to him, because entrepreneurialism, like art, shakes you down and brings you face-to-face with the heart of your being, and you know yourself and you create from that space. Entrepreneurialism and art are both creation, which is why I don’t see any difference between them. If this is a concept you’re encountering for the first time, let it ring true for you starting now.
If you wait for the world to discover your art, then that’s what you’ll get – a lot of waiting. If you choose to actively deliver your art, then the world will encounter it quickly and promptly divide itself into being your fans, your detractors, the indifferent, and the I’ll-see-what-everyone-else-thinks-first. And you’ll have fun handling each.
One of the great lessons to learn from traditional entrepreneurs is that they all have mentors. They all have someone who took an interest in their work and lent a guiding hand. This will be the subject of a future post.
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