Something to Ponder

I am reading Think and Grow Rich by Napolean Hill. I fined the book interesting because it deals with issues that artists deal with on every painting. But Think and Grow Rich is a book about money, you say. Yes, but the process to make money is the same as making good art. Or at least art that pleases you.

Without doing a book review and discussing in detail, I will layout some of the steps.

1) You must have a plan. Every good work of art starts with a plan. Every successful businessperson has a plan for wealth and success. I guaranty you the Henry Ford always had a plan. I guaranty you Donald Trump has a plan. I guaranty you David Leffel has a plan, or “Concept” as he calls it. All great business people do, all great artists do.

2) You must have faith. You need faith in yourself and faith in God, or as the book puts it the Universal Intelligence. You do get what you think about and desire most. Good or Bad. If you think your art is poor it always will be. If your think your art is great it will get better. There is no end to the possibilities of art nor the possibilities of making money, but you have to work at it and have faith.

3) Use the principle of autosuggestion. In otherworld, tell yourself you can produce a great painting. Recently I have started every painting with this thought in mind, "I am going to paint a great painting". As always, at some point I lose my focus. My plan is falling apart. I simply say to myself ” I am going to paint a great painting” and I say that over and over until I get back on track. By doing this it allows my subconscious or creative side to regain control. Be aware there are some limitations to this. You are limited by your education or training, your desire, and your persistence. As in business, if you constantly think your business is failing, it will! If you say I'm going to succeed over and over, the opportunities for success will appear.

I am not going to layout all the steps, I suggest you buy the book and read it yourself. See if you can find the correlation between the art of making money and the art of make art. Maybe you will learn to make good art and good money along the way.

Something to ponder…!

Mark Haglund