4.

SCALE MATTERS

If you have decided not be a starving artist. Here is another simple concept that can help you along the way, namely scale matters.

By scale I mean the size of the question you are looking at.

For example, the question can be how to engage your fans. To look at the scale of this question, is to look at how many fans you have. The strategy that works on talking to 100 fans does not work well when talking to 1000.

I am fond of Peter Thiel’s theory of from zero to one, in which he pointed out the process of creating something out of nothing, which is from zero to one. This process is dramatically different from the process of multiplying the existent creation, which is from one to N.

Further more, there is something more urgent than 1000 fans, which is the ability to look further away from immediate events and surroundings, allowing you to plan ahead, to take greater risks, and to create true masterpieces.

This ability is not available to you at certain resource scale levels. Getting to the scale levels that can afford such eye sight is critical to you as an artist.

Now you may say, “Fine, look at the scale of the situation. It is not a big deal. In fact I have been doing it all the time. What is special about it?”

After paying attention to the scale of things, you may feel limited by the stage you are in, but instead, what it can actually help you is to remind you to spend your resources on taking yourself to your next scale level.

Before you have this perspective, you may think that your goal is to reach the break even point where you can maintain your current project, but that should not be your goal.

Your goal is to spend your resources wisely so that your project can move onto the next scale level, say from 1000 fans to 5000. To do this, you need to fight your nature of being afraid to spend too much, or even have to abandon the break even point that you so desire.

This is the mindset of an entrepreneur, not a starving artist.

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A great artist is not afraid of the entrepreneurial mindset, for example, look at how Michelangelo took on the almost impossible task to carve David out of a thin piece of marble, with the perfection of idealism and practical knowledge.