Just follow your passion and you will succeed. Really?
- Two-thirds of artists reported their total 2008 income as less than $40,000, and nearly one-third earned less than $20,000.
- Artists play multiple roles – seven in 10 artists hold at least one job in addition to making art. *
We have all heard this before. “Just follow your passion and you will succeed.”
When it comes to supporting yourself financially as a full time artist, the “just” part of this statement is a big fat lie.
Why? Because being a full time artist is also very much a business, not a career. Unless you are a commercial artist or teacher, you won’t have a full time JOB as a fine artist.
So you have to have to do two things, and do them in order.
1. The first thing is indeed following your passion and developing your creative talent.
But let’s face it. Although some would like to believe that they have both passion and talent, just take one look at “American Idol.”
I also assert that you must be a thought leader. Your art must have something interesting to say. It must inspire. Otherwise it’s just noise, again like American Idol.
2. The second thing you must do, is to be, business savvy. That’s right. You also must be a skilled entrepreneur. And I mean skilled.
Art is a much harder sell than most. There are times when I wish I were delivering a necessary product to a broader market. But then that would be boring.
Now notice the sequence, first passion and creative talent and then business savvy. Not the other way around.
Occasionally I encounter artists who have the cart before the horse. They want to be selling – who doesn’t? But they do not yet have a viable “product.”
By “product” I mean a cohesive and salable body of work. A body of work that is really inspiring to them so that it may inspire others.
Remember, Artists Who THRIVE is all about “business savvy.” So we need an excellent product with a unique value proposition that will serve a target market.
So start by creating something truly unique that you are very passionate about. It is only then that you can determine its unique value proposition and what target market it could serve.
* 2010 survey commissioned by LINC
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