Visu Sem Blog Post #1

Part 1

The main point of the article “Are Artists Entrepreneurs?” by Amit Gupta, a CEO of Teniegs, is that artists and entrepreneurs are more similar than society gives them credit because they both value creativity and passion above all beyond the social construction that acts as a barrier for their work. When growing up, the dream job for every child is for their profession to be something that they love doing and that is what both artists and entrepreneurs do. That’s not to say that people don’t love doing other jobs but it is that devotion to their ideas that aligns them against the rest of the working industry.

“What entrepreneurs can learn from artists,” by Tim Leberecht similarly compares entrepreneurs and artists but it divides 12 categories of artistic ability that could be beneficial to entrepreneurs. These categories include that artists are neophiles, humanists, craftspeople, children, comfortable with ambiguity, holistic, interdisciplinary thinkers, able to thrive under constraints, great story tellers, conduits and not masters of the universe, and contrarians. These to Leberecht are the greatest qualities that entrepreneurs could learn from artists.

The most valuable traits artists embody, to me, is the fact that they are humanists and children-like. The passion that plays such a role in being an artist is because of their ability to understand human emotions and behavior. In addition, it is that childlike mindset that takes that knowledge of human behavior that creates an original perspective on the world that is so fresh compared to other things produced today.

Additional characteristics of being an artist that Leberecht didn’t mention is the strength of character it takes to put yourself out there in order to be an artist, which is a trait that entrepreneurs also have. The ability to accept that possibility of failure or harsh critique is derived from the very passion that unites artists and entrepreneurs and it keeps them going with every road block.

Artists are entrepreneurs in their own right because they’re career is built upon the same foundation concepts of creativity, innovation, and originality but that isn’t to say that artists can’t learn from the larger organization of entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs can’t learn from artists. This can be explained by the growing need for multifaceted workers and creators as we move further into a conceptual age; artists need to be entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs need to be artists. Artists can learn from their entrepreneur cousins by learning how to adapt under the pressures and needs of society in order to be able to still create what they wish. Entrepreneurs can learn how to deal with ambiguity and how to be more humanistic to derive their ideas from a more personal place.

Part 2:

After taking the Grit test, I got a result of 4.13 out of 5 placing me in the 80th-89th percentile of others who have taken the test. As Angela Lee Duckworth explained in her TedTalk and I gained a better understanding of grit, I could see how I could have got these results. I am a strong willed person and a passionate person, I act on those qualities both in life decisions and in artistic ones. But I do often have so many ideas, and little time and ability to follow up with my project ideas that some of them fall short. There is always room for improvement in art and to become more gritty. That is an aspect of grit itself, though it is on a 1-5 scale on this test, it is always changing and expanding because you’re never done growing as an artist.

To become grittier, I think I need to focus on things one at a time and to dedicate myself to them with whatever free time I have. School is long and hard but that doesn’t mean my artistic life can end because in many ways my artistic life is my real life. That dedication could be going out and taking photographs of new things, of going above and beyond on school photo assignments, keeping up with my blog and website, and even researching new techniques and ideas. Just simply keeping photography in my mind always, is a good way for me to be gritty.