Why do artists fall into the trap of thinking success should be easy?

Artists fall into this trap because of how success stories get sensationalized across all industries and media. Interviewers want to make stories sound easier and more magical—focusing on natural talent rather than grinding work. The people being interviewed often get wrapped up in this narrative too, because the story sounds better when you say you didn’t work that hard and still succeeded. People want to believe they were more talented or smarter rather than that they outworked everyone else. You rarely hear the real story: years of grinding, staying up at night, crying wondering how to feed your family, getting fired from jobs, losing friends and family members because of the commitment. That’s the actual price of success, but it doesn’t make for good headlines. In the art industry specifically, the narrative has been controlled by galleries, publishers, and art dealers who benefited from artists not understanding the business side. This created widespread myths about success being easy or accidental.

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Asked by general teaching point · Answered by Nick Friend and Patrick Shanahan · art-marketing-podcast · 2022-03-04