Artists and intellectuals are hot. Some people may prefer brunettes or blondes, T or A, tall or dark, but nothing does it for me like creative and smart.
Unfortunately, starting from my youth, creativity and smarts were always presented as divergent fields. The propaganda of my childhood was revisited when I sent my dad a video of my son playing piano. "Why are you letting him learn piano?" he asked me. With obvious disdain he continued, "What if he grows up and wants to become . . . a musician?"
In high school, my penchant for disassembling (and reassembling) my computer tower seemed so different from my time drawing posters in the art room. In college, the engineering building was so far from the theater. But as my screenwriter husband and I have recently been bit by an entrepreneurial bug and have been researching transmedia, I'm realizing how much artists and intellectuals have in common. Whether your building a business or creating art, there are things that you have to keep in mind in order to keep going and growing.
Explore. An entrepreneur is really an intellectual at play. Creating art requires that artists (such as musicians, sculptors, writers, designers, programmers etc) play. Many ideas come from connecting the dots by observing trends, nature, space, culture. Someone had to have the audacity to imagine a piping hot slice of pizza coming out of a printer before working on making it happen.
Work. I've learned that what I call "The 80/20 Principle" is referred to as the "pivot" in the start-up scene. When I was writing my thesis for my M.A., one professor told us that only 20 percent of his research ended up in his dissertation. If I had believed him, I might have given up then. But I didn't believe him and I thought that surely I would be able work more efficiently than he. I was wrong. What I discovered is that no amount of efficiency, planning, or focus can make up for putting your nose to the grindstone and working. Malcolm Gladwell in Outliers argues that it takes 10,000 hours to become a master as something.
Pivot. A sculptor friend of mine recently told us about a ceramic piece she worked on that she was actually pleased with it. Normally very critical of her own work, she took time and care with the etchings, and she was pleased with the overall design and shape. She was looking forward to how the glaze would color the etchings and anticipated how beautiful it would be. When she fired it in the kiln, it cracked. It happens. Mourn. Move on. Create something even better.
What else do you think artists and entrepreneurs have in common?
Originally posted on ThirdAmericanHome.com.
