"Want" is overrated

Don't assume you want it more than the other guy.

Making it in the arts isn't a matter of will.  It's not going to happen just because you really, really, want it to happen.

A lot of people want it pretty badly, many of them have more money and other resources then you do.

"Making it" in the arts is about skill, strategy and relationships.  It's about timing and luck.  It's about balancing risk and pragmatic thinking.

In the long run, will, desire, those sorts of things . . . have far less to do with the end outcome then you have been led to believe.

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Yesterday, I had a great conversation with Anthony Moseley about arts marketing.  The link to the interview is here:

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/collaboraction/2010/03/17/social-marketing-with-adam-thurman

 

Comments

[Tim Speicher]

I think that "want" may actually be underrated. In the beginning, "want" is all we have. So, we innovate to leap over our hurdles. In time, we build more money and resources. Our "want" leads us to the research and education that lead to skill, strategy, and relationships. When we've arrived, it's not just because we've mastered these tools, but because we wanted it in the first place. Otherwise, no one would ever get off the ground as a small company, and large companies would falter and crumble. "Want" is the key to it all.

[Russell Weetch]

I love the title, I think I might just borrow it ;-)

Working with software development we get to hear a lot of wants and I certainly believe it is overrated. I understand Tim's agruement (see what I want is to be able to type quickly without making mistakes, what I need is a spell checker :-) but wants have to be quickly translated into needs and strategy. It is just so easy for wants to change.

I think it is exceptionally important to qualify what we want by questioning it with what we need.

[Adam]

Russell - Feel free to borrow it.

Tim - I get your point, I just think it's important that we don't overestimate our own level of "want" versus everyone elses. For example I see a lot of new/younger arts organizations assume that they are the hungry, ambitious ones while everyone else is old, slow and scared.

Sometimes that may be the case, but most of the time it isn't.