HAT ANSWERS TO TWO QUESTIONS FROM NOARTISTSHOULDSTARVE.COM
Question 1: Being a successful artist is no different than being a successful businessperson. You are first and foremost an entrepreneur. What are some of the essential qualities necessary to navigate a successful career throughout your lifetime and do they change and/or evolve over time?
I'd say 3 things:
First, there are things you can't teach anyone - especially someone who wants to be in charge of their own life and future - which is how I'd basically define an entrepreneur. Either you have these traits and talents or you don't. If you don't, I'd suggest getting a real job. The short list includes:
Chutzpah - "If You Don't Ask, You Don't Get". Or as Michael Jordan used to say: "You Miss 100% of the Shots You Don't Take".
Work Ethic & Energy - "If You Can't Outsmart Everyone, at least You Can Always Outwork Them". You've got to love the process and the journey - not just the outcome.
A Refusal to Settle - "The Minute You Accept Less than You Deserve, You Get Less than You Settled For." Don't allow yourself to be defined by others' limitations.
Obsessive Perseverance - "It's Done When It's Done". "Over Every Hill, Another Hill". "There's Always Enough Time to do Things the Right Way".
A Really Thick Skin - "Expecting the World to Treat You Fairly Because You are a Good Person is Like Expecting a Lion not to Eat You because You are a Vegetarian".
No Choice - "It's not about People Who Want to Do It, It's about People Who Have to Do It". "No Retreat, No Surrender".
Second, there are concepts, skills and tools that can contribute to your success - I call them The Perspiration Principles ("You Get What You Work For, Not What You Wish For").
1. Tell A Simple Story - Who are You? Where are You Going? Why?
2. Keep Raising the Bar - What's the Best We Can Possibly Be?
3. Start with What You Have - The Time Will Never Be "Just Right". "It's Easier to Ask for Forgiveness than Permission".
4. Make “Cheap” Mistakes and Make Mistakes O.K. - "The Name of the Game is to Win, Not to be Right All the Time".
5. Make Room for People - Highly-Trained, Motivated People are the Only Sustainable Competitive Advantage . They Come in All Sizes, Shapes and Colors.
6. You Can’t Add Value without Values - "You Can't Win a Race with Your Mouth" - Talk is cheap - Authentic actions matter much more. "You Can't "Ape" Your Way to Success".
7. Run Like the Wind and Don’t Look Back - Speed and Execution are Everything Today
8. Don’t Think for a Minute that You’re Doing It for Someone Else
Finally, things do change. Your basic values shouldn't change, but they do need to be material and relevant to the size, type and age of the business or enterprise you're trying to build. Frankly, start-ups and small business don't always have the luxury of grand mission statements and apple pie value sets - they're just trying to survive.
As an example, here is our current set of values: (1) Unstinting Effort (2) Pride of Craft (3) Courage of Our Convictions (4) Loyalty (5) Excellence .
On the other hand, a Fortune 500 corporation might say that these were their values: (1) Fairness (2) Respect (3) Opportunity (4) Security (5) Inclusion.
Neither is right or wrong and each organization would certainly aspire as well to the other's values, but you can only focus on a few important things at a time. If you chase too many chickens at the same time, you end up hungry with a handful of feathers.
Question 2: There is a popular misconception, in the art business, that people must “pay their dues” before they actually claim their voice and begin to act like real business people. Can you give a business perspective as to why this can be so devastating to a career over time?
I don't think for a minute that the idea of people expecting that you have "paid your dues" is unique to the art business. And I think that it's not a bad idea at all. The trick is to understand that there are two kinds of dues that people allude to when they say things like this and it doesn't matter whether they are gallery owners, movie producers, or venture capitalists who are speaking.
The first kind of "dues" - which we should all subscribe to - has to do with craft and substantive experience. Too many young people today think that there are shortcuts and "tricks of the trade" that let you avoid the sheer amount of time, hard work and practice/learning that are critical to becoming a "professional" anything. Whether it's measured in hours (10,000 hours per Gladwell) or years or successfully completed projects or pieces doesn't really matter - you've got to make the commitment, put in the time and pay these dues.
The second kind of "dues" are the total bullshit commitments which venture capitalists and other "grown-ups" try to extract from young entrepreneurs, beginning artists and other amateurs with a variety of euphemisms like "skin in the game". They describe and attempt to require levels of sacrifice and risk that are: (a) excessive, unseemly and unrelated to the actual commitments of the players and (b) are undertakings that they themselves not only have never made, but ones as well that they wouldn't make personally if their lives depended on it.
I often tell young entrepreneurs that they are making a more than sufficient commitment in giving up their day jobs and a regular paycheck and benefits; taking the risks inherent in starting any new venture; and working inhuman hours for peanuts and that it's not necessary that they also mortgage their homes, borrow the last possible dollar from their friends and family and otherwise bury themselves in debt. This is what bankers, venture capitalists and gallerists are for…presumably it's why they receive such a disproportionate return on their investments.
