There is no close second to financial compensation

March 01, 2015 9:04 AM

Truly creative people tend not to
be motivated by money.

In fact, most artists struggle to even assign monetary
value to their intellectual property, much less ask for the sale. It’s just how
we’re wired. Being heard is job number one.

And yet, despite our most
idealistic tendencies, our most benevolent nature and our most romantic
notions, nothing beats getting paid. There is no close second to financial
compensation.

Besides, deep down, we know we don’t do it for the money, we do
it for what the money stands for. That
we’re worth it.

The secret, then, is making sure we don’t reach a point
where every decision feels like it needs to be legitimized by its ability to
make money. Because once we lock into that mindset, all the whimsy washes away.
All the soul squeezes out of the work.

Buckminster made a poignant observation back in the seventies,
in which he suggested doing away with the erroneous notion that everybody has
to earn a living. He said that although a hundred years ago, almost nobody on
the planet had a job, our society started inventing jobs because of this false
idea that everybody has to be employed at some kind of drudgery to justify
their right to exist. We had inspectors of inspectors and people making
instruments for inspectors to inspect inspectors, he said, but the true business of
people was to think about whatever it was they were thinking
about before somebody came along and told them they had to earn a living.

And
so, perhaps there’s a middle ground. A dual citizenship of being heard and
being paid, whereby artists are still earning money from their work, but not
treating money as the sole arbiter of their creative future.

LET ME ASK YA THIS…

What mental obstacles do you have around making money from your art?

LET ME SUGGEST THIS…

For a copy of the list called, “7 Ways to Out Experience the Competition,” send an email to me, and you win the list for free!

* * * *

Scott Ginsberg

That Guy with the Nametag

Author. Speaker. Strategist. Inventor. Filmmaker. Publisher. Songwriter.

[email protected]

www.nametagscott.com