1. The main point in the Fortune article is that entrepreneurs should learn to become artists, because artists possess all of the talents that are essential to the innovation that makes up today’s market. On the other hand, the main point of the Huffington Post article is the idea that artists should learn to work together with other people so that they all can achieve this one goal that they all share.
2. Artists can learn from entrepreneurs the humility to create a network of people who will support them in their endeavors, and to successfully use the resources at their disposal to achieve their end goal.
3. I definitely agree that in many ways, artists are like entrepreneurs, but for one characteristic: the entrepreneurs build innovation for the business, while the artist builds innovation for themselves. In some cases, the artist may be building on their creativity in order to share it with larger group of people, but for the most part their creativity seeks to outdo the artist’s own creativity from yesterday.
4. I wholly believe that artists are humanists. Since they are able to empathize with other people, they are able to create work that reaches out to everyone else, in a way that few things can.
5. Artists can also be thought of as lenses. In order to be creative, the artist must take that which is familiar to us, and redefine it. They must look at ordinary life, and transform it from a new perspective, like a lens over the things that we can already see. Sometimes everything will look red, or only certain objects will look squiggly, or the shadows will begin to contrast more heavily. Or maybe the entire field of vision will be taken over by something completely alien. It’s entirely up to the artist, as they are the ones creating this new lens.
6. I think that both entrepreneurs and artists should be open to the response they receive from their various audiences. If they are able to take their creativity and turn it into a conversation with other people, I believe that they’d achieve new heights in their thinking and production.
On the subject of grit…
1. Grit definitely seems to be something that I need to work on. I have some, but I need to cultivate it.
2. Some ways I can increase my grit it maybe by convincing myself to go back to an old project and looking at it from a new angle, or by taking a short break every once in a while – not one that makes me forget about the project, but one that helps me to retain my interest for a longer period of time.