I read lots of books about business, and how to do the right things in business. I think many of them are obvious and say the same things. I think some of them are just plain stupid and self obsessed. I learned how to succeed in business by first learning to become a painter.
When faced with a blank canvas and your paints, you must make decisions, and once you start, you have to commit to them. You have to start with an idea, and be comfortable that many hours and days might go by before your idea ever starts to take shape on the canvas. You have to be open to new ideas or directions presenting themselves to you along the way. You also have to be willing to make an ugly painting.
Painting the way I paint isn’t a relaxing pass time. The canvases are large, the brushstrokes are thick and the whole process is fairly physical. When I come home at night, I am tired. I have to force myself to go into the studio, and have faith that progress will happen. Even an hour is better than nothing.
As the painting develops, it will reach a variety of stages where it looks really good, there will be this one amazing brush stroke or color passage, and I will want to stop and leave it as is. But my gut tells me, its just not done. I hang it at the foot of my bed and look at it when I go to sleep, and first thing when I wake up. If my gut keeps telling me its not done, I take it back into the studio. I have to be completely unafraid of destroying the parts I was getting attached to, as they do not make the entire experience of the painting.
As the painting evolves, great passages are covered over or scraped away, it moves through stages where it just looks like a mess, sometimes it needs to dry for a bit, sometimes I switch to my sketchbook or start another completely different painting. I am patient, but I keep going at it, until my gut tells me it is done. Then I start all over again.
What I learned as a painter applies directly to how I run my business. I work at it tirelessly, and am not afraid of failure (as its only a temporary situation). I let other ideas come into the playing field, and I don’t look for a quick fix. I trust my gut and am not afraid to make scary decisions. I have had to let good people go, and lost good clients due to not listening to my gut. Intuition, courage and action are powerful when combined, and if you just make the effort to get started and keep at it, amazing things will happen. If you can inspire this in your team, then you are definitely guaranteed to succeed!
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I am a stone sculptor by non-profession. However, sculpting has shaped the way I approach life and business. For instance: like life, stone is unforgiving. When treated without respect, care, and patience, stone will break indefinitely and never give you back what you mistakenly destroyed.
Here is how I feel about stone.
You have to have a clear schedule and plan, before you begin. No matter how perfect the plan is, you can only see the outside. The mystery is hidden inside and revealed through the passing of time. Sometimes that is good, sometimes that is bad.
During progress, time will pass slowly and the final result will seem a long way off. You have to celebrate the progress and see the small incremental stages as successes. Otherwise your commitment will falter. One small section can be tackled at a time, but if you do not stop, step away and look at how it fits into the whole picture you could have done too much in that area and now the big picture needs to adjust to your mistake. Is it easier to remedy a little thing or everything? And speaking of mistakes, during the entire process you will continually make mistakes. Lots of mistakes! After every mistake, every break, every unforeseen imperfection, you can choose to accept and adjust and change or give up. How flexible are you?
When you have come to completion, how much have you learned? How will you do it different next time? Can you be satisfied not only with the final outcome but the attitude and effort you presented through the process? I hope we can all answer, yes.
This is how I feel about stone, life, and business.
Jonathan