Relativity

Creative business owners tell me all the time, “It is not like what we are doing is brain surgery.  We are just providing [a logo, flowers, pictures, lights, music, video, furniture].”  Some go even further and say that their creative business gives clients the “fluff” in their lives.

In one sense, they are right – nobody NEEDS a logo, flowers, lights, music, video or furniture, while someone may very well NEED a brain operation to stay alive.  And, in that context, all creative businesses provide the “fluff” of their client’s lives.  However, in the most important sense, they are wrong.  Your clients choose you because your art matters to them – a lot.  What you call “fluff, they call the fabric of their lives.  How you respond to this responsibility is what will ultimately determine the success or failure of your creative business.

If you choose to wipe yourself away and marginalize your art and your creative business, you will race to price at the first opportunity.  If, however, you fully embrace the notion that your clients hire you for your intention and vision as much as they do for the end product, you will understand that doing things how you do them, without compromise, is the highest respect you can give.  You will prove yourself worthy of the faith your clients afford you.

But we are all so slippery.  The difference between authentic pride and confidence and ego and bravado is a razor’s edge.  Just as we cannot believe ourselves and our art to be any less important than it is, we cannot believe it to be more so either.  No one likes a prima donna and, even if you are that good, at some point, the cost of your ego will outweigh your art.  Drama is its own self-limitation.

You have to do the work for its own sake, not for the money, the kudos or criticism.  Be in it and be true to your motivations, seeing your gift for what it is — no more, no less.  Relativity has no place in creative business.  You will use it to destroy yourself in one way or another.  If you come from a place of integrity, you will never have to question why you were hired.  You will know you were hired because your client believes your art can transport them.  Then you can have your creative business set about doing just that and leave the rest alone.