The Secret to Success for Artists and Creatives

This is excellent--except that Mr. Pagliarini has mislabeled his actual premise. It is NOT that "artists should just create." It is that artists must take control of their own process. And there are at least two major aspects to that process, if you would survive as an artist:

1) To create, to the absolute limit of your capacity for passion, honesty and skill. And to create every day.

2) To market what you have created. This might be through signing with a company, an agency, whatever. Or it might be handling these things yourself. For most artists, it will have to be some combination of the two, if they would survive: both finding allies, and getting out there and spreading the word about your creation.

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This is two entirely different "hats," and many artists aren't comfortable wearing both. Easy to understand. It would be wonderful if all we had to do was create brilliant work, and the world would beat a path to our door. But that is the child-artist within us speaking. The adult self understands that money is a matter of commerce, and makes our peace with it. Keeping that balance while keeping your integrity can kill you if you aren't careful. I remember a writer who passed me his card: "freelance hack and literary mechanic." He was dead a year later, from alcoholism.



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