Be an Artist

Given my role within my company, one of the questions that I frequently get asked is how to develop and succeed professionally. After much thought about all the different strategies that one can take to become good at their profession and excel, I have come to the conclusion that the most important thing to do is to change our paradigm about how we view our tasks and day-to-day responsibilities. Nowadays, when someone asks me for advice on how to excel in their professional life, I have a simple yet not easy answer: be an artist. 

I now believe that there are two ways to view any responsibility within your professional life. The traditional way and the artist's way. Let's imagine we have a restaurant and we have two people whose job title is “waiter.” The first person sees their job and thinks that their responsibility is to take an order and bring the food that the customers requested. Simple enough and not very exciting. The second person sees their job as something much more complex and exciting. He sees himself as an artist. His art is to make the people he serves feel like guests in his home. In other words, his duty is to entertain them, ensure they  have a good time and change their evening. Two people can have the same title, but the depth with which each sees their responsibilities leads them to have radically different behaviors in their day-to-day lives. 

For our waiter, his days are pretty boring. Every day, he seats people at tables, takes the order from a relatively small menu, goes to the kitchen, gives the order to the cook, a few minutes later picks up the food from the kitchen, brings it to the table and after a while brings the bill to the table. He repeats this process every day without much excitement or change. There is nothing more to learn, little to develop, and the days seem very long. 

For our artist, his days are filled with exciting events and surprises. Every day our artist has a challenging mission to accomplish. Like a good host, each of his guests is different. Each one arrives with different needs. There are guests who come tired after a long day of work and he must find a way to change their day. Other guests come to greet our artist and enjoy simply being attended to and having recommendations made about the restaurant's new creations. There are others who seek a bit of privacy and our artist grants them that. For our artist, achieving his mission is a complex challenge. In his free time, our artist can be developing himself, looking to improve his skills to accomplish his mission. Every day is different and there is always something new to learn. 

Take a few minutes to reflect. Which of these people do you think will be more successful in their job? The waiter or the artist? Who do you think will get the best tips? Who do you think will have more opportunities for rapid development? And ironically, who do you think has a better time at work? Who do you think feels more satisfied when they go home? Who do you think has a greater sense of purpose about what they do? 

That's right, the artist. 

All the successful people I know are artists. I don't know any successful lawyers, managers, architects, engineers, salespeople, mathematicians, teachers, programmers, executives, or waiters. Not one. All these successful professionals are artists. Their profession is their art. And it is thanks to seeing their profession as their art that they are extremely successful. It is thanks to this passion they have for what they do that they enjoy improving their skills. That they are constantly training. That they are always looking to give their best. That when they come to work every day, they have the same attitude as an actor when the curtain rises. The show has begun. 

Next Steps 

Reflect deeply on the responsibilities you currently have. 

● How would these responsibilities be different if you saw your work as that of an artist? 

● What other responsibilities would an artist have? 

● Would an artist have the same behaviors as you in their day-to-day life? What should you change? 

Do this and become an artist. 

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