The Self-Reliant Entrepreneur

February 5Own Your Art

It is a beautiful truth that all contain something of the artist in them. And perhaps it is the case that the greatest artists live and die, the world and themselves alike ignorant what they possess. I think of few heroic actions, which cannot be traced to the artistical impulse. One who does great deeds, does them from an innate sensitiveness to moral beauty. Such persons are not merely artists, they are also artistic material.

Walt Whitman—“Talk to an Art-Union”—Prose Works (1892)

In a speech at the Unesco International Conference of Artists in Venice in 1952, world-renowned sculpture Henry Moore expressed a similar thought: “I feel that I can best express myself, that I can best give outward form to certain inward feelings or ambitions by the manipulation of solid materials—wood, stone or metal.”

That's how it is with many entrepreneurs; they express who they are by molding their vision to become something experienced by others in outward form.

Today you'll manipulate both yourself and how people experience your business—you'll become both artist and the subject of your art, and that will be the most heroic thing you can do today.

Own it.

Challenge Question

1. What is your favorite sculpture? (Don't have one? Then find one that inspires you! Henry Moore's work is a good place to look.)