An Artist’s Guide to Entrepreneurship
Entrepreneurship can be a daunting career path. With limited education about entrepreneurship in traditional school settings, it feels like a career that requires a mysterious but specific background in order to become successful.
The beauty of entrepreneurship is it is a skillset that can build on top of any professional or personal background. Success in entrepreneurship requires a mindset more than it requires a certain skill.
Interestingly, most artists have a mindset that serves as a solid foundation for entrepreneurship.
I’ve been an artist my whole life and I’m grateful that I’ve been able to overlap my business brain with my more creative side — both in my marketing career and in my entrepreneurial ventures.
Here are 5 ways my artist brain has helped me in entrepreneurship:
- Make it exist. Make it pretty later.
Artists start with a blank canvas.
The first brushstroke is the most difficult. Artists know the importance of acting on inspiration even if it is messy at first.
Many people have business ideas. Very few pursue them. The most important step in entrepreneurship is simply getting started. Make it exist — even as a side hustle. Then make it pretty later.
Whether it’s starting a new brand or writing a new SOP, people who build businesses pretty consistently build on blank canvases. Even if it doesn’t feel comfortable to do so, entrepreneurs have to be able to stand in front of a blank canvas and start somewhere.
2. Prepare for the pivot.
Artists typically begin projects with a vision, sometimes going so far as to starting a sketch or rough draft to guide the project. In oil painting, artists will use a monochromatic underpainting that sets the composition as well as the highlights and shadows of the composition.
But as projects evolve, artists are ready to go with the flow. There are no “accidents” as much as there are creative evolutions that send a creation in a different direction than expected. Great artists can feel those moments of change and embrace them, as opposed to staying stringent to their original vision.
In entrepreneurship, we start with a business plan with clear action plans, goals and objectives. As a stubborn entrepreneur, I have had times where I held onto an idea too tightly. I didn’t want to admit that it was time to pivot. As a result, I spend months trying to force something that was never going to happen.
Things change. Accidents happen. Entrepreneurs need to go with the flow and pivot in a different direction when the work is suggesting a change.
3. Zoom out.
It’s common for artists to step back to see how all of the small pieces are coming together before diving into another round of detail. With a canvas, this looks like walking to the other side of the room and looking at a project from a distance.
Artists are used to looking at things from multiple perspectives. Zooming out. Zooming in. Looking at work in different types of lighting, during different times of day. Turn it upside down. Step away. Come back with fresh eyes.
Entrepreneurs can fall victim to being too singularly focused. We can be so deep in our work that we miss a threat in the space or an opportunity to build bigger. We can also be so deep in the weeds that we can’t see or celebrate progress that is only revealed with distance.
The artist entrepreneur knows to zoom out. Change perspective. Put the work away. And dive back in with a better understanding of how everything fits together.
4. Avoid critics.
Every artist has experienced crushing feedback at some point in their journey. Whether it was solicited or unsolicited feedback, the project carries the shadow going forward. The work can’t continue without the feedback clouding the thoughts about the piece.
It’s not uncommon for artists to work in private and avoid revealing a piece until it is completed.
As entrepreneurs, we often solicit feedback on our projects from everyone in our circle. While feedback is important, it needs to be weighted accordingly.
Solicit feedback from individuals who have been where you are trying to go. Feedback from everyone in your circle is not useful and can lead you to an overly negative place.
5. Keep creating.
Creative individuals know that creativity is a skill. The more you create, the more creative your perspective is.
“You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have” Maya Angelou
In contrast, creativity decreases when you stop creating.
Similarly, entrepreneurship is a skill. While it is tiring, it is inexhaustible.
The more we build, the more we will see things that need to be built.
Even if you have had a project not go to plan, get back to building. Even if it’s something small on the side. Building keeps your entrepreneurial skill sharp.
There is no singular background or schooling that is required in order to become a successful entrepreneur.
Instead, entrepreneurship is a skill that is learned, practiced and never mastered.
Happy creating. Happy building.
