The Underlying “Fear Complex” That Deters Creatives

Let’s ask ourselves: should we describe creativity as a vehicle for commerce or something entirely divorced from reaching the marketplace? Is the concept of art for art’s sake an exercise in futility or a noble pursuit? The whole thing looks complicated at some point.

For bohemians in the 20th century, art for art’s sake was a solemn creed and looking at it on the surface; it appears as a beautiful and cherishing idea.

The argument is that we (creatives) shouldn’t create works for functional or commercial purposes. Rather, we should create works because it is worth creating and it is just for enjoyment. Come to think of it, what kind of creative would openly confess his or her desire to make a huge profit from his/her art?

That, in itself, sounds ultimately greedy.

Looking at it from the other side, what designer, musician, or writer wants to be ignored or irrelevant? Who doesn’t want his/her work to be discovered? Tell me; is your best work not worthy of public attention or praise, and even compensation?

From the above facts, the real problem with creatives is not about the fear of compensation or the discovering of our work. Rather, the underlying fear tormenting many of us is that, if we care too much about monetization or business marketing of our works, we will end up losing the beauty and glory of our art. This is a very myopic way of thinking; an irrational one that contributed to the notion of the starving artist—the myth that has kept so many people of talent locked away in the illusional world of art purity that only breed poverty and self-limitations.

Who Is The Starving Artist?

It is simple. It is the idea that the more unpopular and impoverished you are as a creative, the better and more purified your work would be. If this isn’t stupidity, then I wonder what is.

The starving artist, as a concept, is really nonsensical and straight up hogwash. No amount of poverty with an infamous persona will make your work better. On the contrary, it is the right mindset and touch of a genius, reward for good works, and popularity for excellence that unravel the better part of your creativity.

Here are four reasons why you should quit with the useless starving artist mentality and concentrate on improving yourself through feedback on your work from your monetized audience.

1.    The Idea Of Being A “Starving Artist” Is
Antiquated, Victim-Minded And Counterproductive

As stated before, the concept of the starving artist is archaic, baseless, and has no reward whatsoever. Even creatives in the Bohemian era only had their work known because their fame spread across many lands, and they became popular. But this isn’t the case with the starving artist mindset. It breeds self-limitation and hinders progressive creativity.  You can do without being poor or incarcerating yourself to a life of seclusion while have amazing work. 

For instance, many popular musicians today were once underground musicians who later developed their work to hit the mainstream fame they enjoy today. They never stopped at the local level, nor confined themselves to the underground.

Self-victimization kills creativity and is overwhelmingly counterproductive. Starving your creative genius from the attention and reward it’s worth will only end up killing the quality of your work.

Everything you have heard about the starving artist doctrine is nothing but myths and foolishness. You can read up on great artists in history who were successful and popular in the course of their business without starving themselves.   

2.    Believing That Your Talent Will Sell On Its Own Is Mental Masturbation

One of the major problems with creatives who considers or adhere to the starving artist concept is the blind belief that their art will sell on its own. This is pure mental masturbation at its peak.

You can have the best imagination and imagine all that you want, create all that you say or write down all that you can; what is important is the action you take to realize your goals.

No art or product sells itself. At least not in the way that some poor naïve soul might believe. It is the marketing strategy you create around your creativity that gets your art or work out to be recognized by people. Creating intellectually inspiring and quality projects that have no actionable plan of projection is one of the many forms of mental masturbation.

Retreating from reality and living in a world of fantasy will never get you anywhere. If you must succeed with your art, you must abandon the concept of the starving artists, because it is a useless mentality, and useless will always be useless.     

If you have been procrastinating, you are suffering from mental masturbation. Now is the time to act and take your creativity to the next level. As long as you do not value today, tomorrow will never come because, when it does, it won’t still mean anything to you since you lack actionable decisions and implementations. 

Yes, talent is good, but it’s never enough. If you must get value for your talent, then you must get up and take action on how to get your art to its target audience. You must know where your audience is, how to connect with them, what are the best practices to get their attention, and all that. None of that comes from your talent but taking action to help your talent. Otherwise, your talent and its starving artist mindset will just remain a talent without value nor reward—and that’s a serious waste of time. You may want to ask the Biblical ungrateful servant and the One Talent. (“There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth when the Master cometh”) 

3.    You Can Only Make A Living Through Your Art If It’s A Business

Unless you have other lucrative means of income, there is no other way you can earn a living with your art if you do not monetize it. If you must succeed financially as an artist, you have to stop being a starving artist and become a thriving artist.

There is no greatness in being miserable, and certainly, you won’t earn a living from being a miserable artist. 

Today, some of the world’s most influential and rich people are artists in various sectors of the entertainment/art industry. They didn’t become influencers or accumulate the wealth they have from a state of poverty. They are who they are today for choosing to monetize and make a living out of their art.

Don’t be fooled by Hollywood fantastically painting an image of the starving artist, literally suffering in his dark, damp and raggedy ass studio, hoping that someday a “messiah” would come and buy into his art. Yes, there were some stories of people back then who were in such conditions until they got lucky enough to finally get a breakthrough and become successful.

But gone are those days. Those folks were living in the past. Now is the future. Besides, many of us forget that while those guys were waiting miserably in their poverty-stricken studios, they were busy creating art they knew would earn them and their children’s children a living.

Don’t be afraid to make a living out of your labor. Making money from your art will help you nurture your passion and increase your success drive towards your art.

So you have to change your mindset, start thriving and start making a living from your art. It’s yours, and you deserve it.

4.    Take Your Craft Seriously, Invest In Yourself And Charge Your Worth, So People Take You Seriously

Your craft and how creative you are in it is the only way you can make a living off it. So every part of you must be on deck to enhance and thrive with your craft. While the nonsensical starving artist belief has little or no time for profit, the reality of the 21st century speaks otherwise.

To survive in this era, you have to work hard, and your work must receive the best of your attention. Even the Bible said the work of hands should be blessed, meaning if you don’t work hard, you won’t have any blessing (profit) from your work.

So how can you work hard? You start by taking your work seriously. That is, spending more time with your work. Instead of wasting fruitless hours on your social media handles, channel that time into your work. Quit procrastinating and start investing in yourself.

Yes, self-investment is the next kin to success. It is the key that unlocks every hidden potential and break asunder the barriers of self-incarceration fostered by the stupid notion of the starving artist.

Invest in yourself by studying what others in your art category are doing. Figure out what you are lacking and what makes them better than you are. Do some research and map out an improvement strategy with result-oriented goals. See if you can “steal” (emulate) some of the icons in the game (yes, nothing is new in art, we are just repeating cycles), but do so in a more distinct and jaw-dropping way. Again, since you cannot know it all, cultivate the habit of always researching. That way, you would be able to find something worth emulating, or a new area worth exploring.  At the same time, you are improving your art quality.

No strife comes without a barrier, so be ready to accept constraints in whatever form. But you don’t allow them to control the pace. Rather, learn from them and keep pushing.

Once you can build up your proficiency, move to the next point of valuing your art. Now, this is another area that the starving artist doctrine holds negative. The truth is, the best way to measure the quality of any work comes from the value its target audience places on it.

If your art must attract high value from its target audience, then you must first place that value on it. How much you charge for your work will determine its worth in the marketplace.

If you charge low because you feel the need to be competitive, then people will not value the worth of your art. Charge high, and people will immediately perceive your work to be top quality. Typically, people respond more positively to products with high prices than for similar products at very lower prices.

So, if you have that starving artist mindset, now is the time to cut that nonsense out. It will never do you any monetary good. Charge your worth so people can take you seriously and give that starving artist bullshit concept a big fat middle finger as you start making money doing what you love.

The starving artist mindset and its poverty mentality are the doctrines of pretentious geeks who have waged a self-righteous war on capitalism. Listening and adhering to the idea of being a “starving artist will keep your talent and well-being on lockdown. There is nothing honorable about being a broke ass loser with talent. Whoever told you that you need to just do art for free simply for enjoyment and the appeasement of others (who are looking to benefit from it), is a moron. You are well within your right to do what you love AND make a living from it. Get this money.