if you've thought about giving up on
your dreams as an artist that is
absolutely normal because all artists go
through this process at one point in
their career as a matter of fact the art
business model is likely the most
saturated Marketplace on this planet at
any given moment you have millions of
people that are trying to become the
next best thing and only 100 people or
something that are the next best thing
and so Millions to 100 that's kind of a
bottleneck not in your face but on top
of that and this is very crucial in the
our business model you are not only
fighting against your contemporaries but
also against the smartest and brightest
people out of the history books because
Leonardo da Vinci might be dead for 500
years but his art is still being
consumed being bought and sold in the
marketplace and so even though he has
been dead for 500 years he is still kind
of your competitor to some extent I
don't like to use the word competitive
but you kind of get the point this is a
very saturated Marketplace and so what
does it mean to be in the most
competitive Marketplace on this planet
but for me it meant that at some point
in my career I was lying on the ground
floor in my studio crying contemplating
all my previous life decisions why did I
went for this art career is this even
possible will I ever make enough money
to support some kind of family in the
future will girls even consider me once
they know how little money I'm making
and all of these thoughts were crippling
they were devastating they were
depressing and so let's talk about this
let's talk about your dreams of becoming
an artist about your thoughts of giving
up as an artist and possible solutions
for those problems and let's be
realistic because yes it's true art is
probably most likely the most saturated
Marketplace on this planet but it's also
never been better to be an artist than
today artists have never made more money
with their art than they are making
today and thanks to technology new type
of business model has been created a
Creator economy that is more powerful
than any the auto R business model we
have in the past
one of the first problems you face as an
artist is marketing yourself and meeting
new people and so here's what I would do
I would go through art fairs and
galleries I would dress up like an
artist ready to meet new people ready to
meet a collector that would make all my
dreams come true ready to make the
gallery owner that would suddenly
transform my entire art career and the
reality of those situations early on in
my career is that I was walking on those
art fairs looking at the art and
fantasizing about talking to people in
reality I wasn't talking to anyone I
didn't have the guts I didn't have the
social skills and I had some social
anxiety some introversion in me and I
just couldn't make that happen and in
those moments it's very easy to think
that you simply are not good enough that
you don't have the social skills
necessary to create an odd career out of
yourself and the same thing happened
when I wanted to start a YouTube channel
I was terrified of talking in front of
your camera what are my friends going to
think will they still like me afterwards
will they laugh with me will there be
negative comments in in the comment
section and all of that stuff and
looking back those doubts are always
kind of silly because in reality your
friends don't care they don't actually
watch your videos they don't actually
watch your art they are all busy living
their own life and in those moments that
you are too scared to go over and talk
to the collector or that you are too
scared to take up that camera and start
filming in those moments it's very easy
to think that we are not good enough
that we cannot become a full-time artist
because we don't have the necessary
skills and we might never get the
necessary skills yet here I am a couple
of years later reaching 50 000 people
every single month and so what happened
there how did I overcame that fear of
picking up the camera or fear of talking
to people or anything of that Niche well
for me the answer is is very simple I
just wanted to talk to people way more
than I wanted to be shy or introverted
and if you want something that nobody
else has you have to be willing to do
something that nobody else is doing and
for some that means going over to the
collector and talking to them for others
it means picking up that camera and
started talking for all this means both
and as harsh as this might sound as
simple as this might sound if you want
it bad enough you will find a way even
if you're an introvert because so no not
because I think Fango Van Gogh said it
beautifully when he said if you hear a
voice within you that says that you
cannot paint then by all means paint and
that force will be silenced
[Applause]
[Music]
one of the first solutions that I came
up with for my introverted aspects and
my social anxiety was actually social
media because social media on the
surface solves all of those problems
introverts don't have problems with
communicating with people they have a
problem with breaking the eyes and on
social media you don't have to do that
and so obviously I went into that
direction and started creating posts on
Instagram Facebook eventually YouTube
and things like that and what I didn't
realize is that social media would also
bring way more problems especially in
the beginning than it solves I remember
early on in my career I was putting in
so much time in every single post and I
was not getting any results of that I
was getting a couple of likes and this
was devastating and very depressing
because at the same time I was seeing
how 16 year olds were getting thousands
of likes on their posts for art that was
at best average and as much as I
understood that I shouldn't compare my
behind the scenes with someone else
highlights real I did that anyway and it
felt devastating and it felt very
depressing and it didn't took long
before I started contemplating whether
or not I was way too old to succeed on
social media or rather it was simply too
late to still succeed on social media
and these thoughts again became so much
crippling after years of trying and
years of failure and one of the dangers
with having no social media success is
that you slowly start thinking it's your
fault and it's because of the art that
you are making and this is a very
dangerous trajectory and the reason this
is so dangerous is that artists in those
situations oftentimes change the art
that they are making in function of the
audience they are so desperate for the
like so desperate for the attention of
other people that they start to make art
for those other people and on the
surface this is okay this sounds like a
good plan you have to change your heart
anyway you have to improve as North
anyway so why don't you try to improve
and bring your art more in line with the
desires of the marketplace fair enough
it becomes problematic however when you
try to do that and then you end up with
art that nobody is liking anyway because
what's worse than making art that is not
getting likes on social media it's
making art that is not getting likes on
social media and that you hate it making
in the first place and sadly enough this
is a spot that a lot of artists
especially those who go on social media
find themselves in they suddenly start
making art that they hate in the hopes
of getting likes and them they're not
getting those likes luckily there is a
very easy solution for this
stop caring about other people's
opinions stop caring about the likes
stop caring about the comments and go
back to making art that you want to make
regardless of other people's opinions if
you have a uniprow instead of Shaving it
don't shave it at all if you are balding
instead of hiding it just shave it all
off if you have a really bad post that
you don't dare to post on Instagram post
it anyway as a matter of fact take your
worst painting or drawing or anything
that you've ever made and then post it
on Instagram Sometimes the best thing
that can happen to you is that your
worst fear becomes a reality because
more often than not in that moment you
suddenly realize there was nothing to be
afraid of in the first place the reality
is that there is no reason to give a
about other people's opinions
because the reality is that those other
people don't even have those opinions in
the first place they are all busy living
their own lives and as much as you think
they are busy formulate leading opinions
about you they simply don't
[Music]
a couple of weeks ago I did a poll and
asked artists why they were waiting to
promote their Art online and the
majority of them 38 of them said they
were waiting to promote their Art Online
until they were good enough and the
problem with that is not that they are
not good enough and that they are
practicing and then improving their
skill until they are good enough and
then starting to know the problem with
that is that five percent of those Arts
that are raiding are already better than
99 of artists out there and so they have
just invented reasons in their hands
excuses to not do the thing excuses do
not promote their Art online and that's
a sad reality and on top of that you
don't even have to be good in order to
promote your art online simply document
the journey and you will be surprised of
how many people find Value in learning
from you learning the reality is that
you will never feel good enough for the
rest of your life there will never be a
week in time where you will feel like
you know what I'm the best artist alive
I don't know who it was that said you
don't have to be great in order to start
but you have to start in order to be
great and that's just a very powerful
statement because most artists have
exactly that problem they simply need to
start and as much as this video is about
creating on your dreams as an artist the
reality is that most artists don't have
a problem with quitting they have a
problem with starting most artists never
start chasing their dreams in the first
place
[Music]
at some point I made a ball asking the
artist following this channel how many
of them actually executed on the advice
that I was giving on this channel and I
was blown away by how many people never
executed on the advice that I was giving
and so I started contemplating about
this was my channel even worth it did I
make the right decision to go for this
channel perhaps people didn't want to
listen to me and they want to listen to
Damien Hurst talking about our business
instead which would be very
understandable I personally would also
rather listen to him than to me but the
point is that it didn't take long for me
to go into a very dark spot what if I
never chose to chase this art Creator
what if I did this one thing four years
earlier than I did it what if I never
dated that one toxic person etc etc etc
now here's the point that I want to make
a couple of days later I was going
through the comments on my videos in
order to understand the audience better
in order to understand their pain points
what you guys want what you guys need
what you guys are struggling with to
make my videos better and I stumbled
Palm literally no exaggeration hundreds
of comments of people thanking me for
what I was doing for them sometimes they
would even say things as extremists
thank you for saving my life I'm so
grateful for this Channel and so what we
stumbled upon here is a good example of
how doubt works I was clearly making a
difference and I was helping tens of
thousands of artists but I was doubting
whether or not my channel was worth it
and so the amount of doubt that you have
is not linearly correlated to the amount
of reason for doubt that you have you
might have no reason to doubt anything
and doubt everything all at once or the
opposite have a lot of Reason To Doubt
but be the most confident guy anymore
there's this one amazing research
probably one of my favorites where they
asked participants to watch a video of
people passing basketballs and they had
to count the pauses and then after they
did that they asked the participants if
they saw anything unusual in the video
and most participants said that they
didn't saw anything unusual in the video
yet throughout the video there was a
gorilla a man in a gorilla suit walking
over the basketball court and they
didn't saw something as obvious as a man
in a gorilla suit why because they were
focused on Counting the bosses and so
what can we learn from this well what
you aim for in life literally shapes
your reality of life itself depending on
what you aim you will feel doubt misery
Despair and think about creating your
art career or you will feel like the
best artist alive and so dealing with
these feelings of creating your dreams
of becoming an artist might be as simple
as changing what you focus on instead of
counting the passes counting the likes
counting the comments just take a couple
of steps back and simply watch the
game and when you do this you
might notice that you are not alone that
all artists have fears that all of them
are doubting at some points in their
careers that all of them have moments
where they think they are worthless and
moments where they are walking on the
clouds this is simply part of the
package of what it means to be an artist
and those who become full-time artists
are not those without figures but those
who plow through despite the fears if
you need more motivation as in order to
keep on going I have two other videos
that talk about the darkest moments in
my art career the moment where I thought
about creating most I've put them in a
playlist and I'll link the playlist in
the description and the end screen
that's it get the hell out of here