Don’t Hide Your Flaws — Celebrate Them! (Just Like Andy Warhol Did)
A secret for shattering the negative and skyrocketing success is hidden in this piece of Warhol’s art.
Above is a self portrait of Andy Warhol. I’m about to share a surprising revelation from this painting and the life of Warhol you likely have never yet considered.
(After all the struggle you may have faced previously, your flaws can actually be flipped to fabulous.)
Warhol was the world famous 20th Century pop-artist known for painting everyday items such as Campbell Soup Cans and Brillo Pads — and portraits from Marilyn Monroe to Chairman Mao.
In fact, Warhol’s series of 32 paintings of Campbell Soup Cans now hang in the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City — and the series is likely worth hundreds of millions of dollars today (some Warhol paintings have sold at auction for over $100 million each). Many other Warhol paintings are in the world’s great art museums as well as in famous private art collections around the world.
But a secret in his art is what’s most important to you — right here — right now.
Go ahead a look at the photo of Warhol at the top of this article. Do you notice anything you would consider…a flaw?
How about his hair?
It’s an obvious looking wig, isn’t it?
Andy Warhol was a young advertising artist in NYC when he first started wearing a hairpiece. He didn’t intend to draw attention to his hair — in fact people who get a hairpiece make every effort to do it as discretely as possible. But Warhol’s hairpiece was so bad, so noticeable, that everyone knew about it.
“If you wear a wig, everybody notices. But if you then dye the wig, people notice the dye.” — Andy Warhol
$24 million for one of Warhol’s flaws? Wow!
In 1986 Warhol himself celebrated his faux hair in a series of self-portrait photographs he titled Fright Wig. (The photo at the top of this page is from that series.) Instead of his wig being a negative to him, he gave it more focus and even celebrated it.
And guess what? A single Fright Wig self-portrait sold at a 2016 Sotheby’s auction for over $24 million!
Have you ever considered how your flaws could be worth a fortune too? (Hmmm. Think about that one for a minute.)
I know not everyone is a fan of Warhol or his work (you may not be). Though I’m not a fan of the lifestyle he led, I love his artwork — and admire his ability to overcome and even celebrate a flaw.
For example…
After Warhol was shot in 1969 by a deranged fan, he did something surprising.
Instead of hiding it, Warhol had photos taken of his body showing all the scars from surgery and shared the photos publicly.
A noticeable wig and scarred body. He didn’t hide them. He celebrated them.
What about YOU? We all have flaws. (I certainly do.) How can you transform “flaws to fabulous” like Andy Warhol did?
“They always say time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself.” — Andy Warhol
How does this apply to you? What’s Andy Warhol got to do with you?
5 Mind-shifts to go from flaw to fabulous:
- Make the decision not to hide your flaws. By not hiding them, you’re saying to yourself and to the world they aren’t really flaws at all — they’re awesome. Find a way to celebrate them in some way.
- Some of the most celebrated individuals in history turned their flaws into fabulous. There are no restrictions on you. You can do the same.
- If you think your flaws are cool, it doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks. You are in full control of how YOU feel about them. And your positive view of them will influence how others look at them as well.
- Decide to do something to accentuate a flaw. Warhol did it with his wig. What can you do?
- Do this valuable exercise:
Make a list of what you perceive as your flaws. Then write next to each of them the answer to “How are these fabulous?” Look at your completed list and celebrate it.
The Following 3 Examples Illustrate This:
1. A recovering drug addict…
Talking about going from flaw to fabulous, my friend Joe Polish is a genius entrepreneur, author, and one of the world’s best networkers — yet he has a flaw. He’s a recovering drug addict.
Joe’s been clean for over twenty-five years, but he has to be careful about addiction. Instead of HIDING this flaw, he speaks about it openly and has turned it into something to help people around the world.
In fact, he started an organization called Genius Recovery, which has a mission to change the global conversation about addiction — changing it from judgment to understanding. He just co-authored a book titled The Miracle Morning for Addiction Recovery as well.
How can you do something positive like this with one of your flaws so you can shatter the negative and skyrocket success in your life?
2. Another amazing example…the Dove® Real Beauty Campaign
Don’t you just love what the Dove Company has done with their Campaign for Real Beauty® over the past decade or so?
These ladies turn what some would perceive as FLAWS into FABULOUS.
Grey or gorgeous? I say GORGEOUS!
Withered or wonderful? WONDERFUL!
Fat or fit? I say FABULOUS!
Flawed or flawless? I again say FLAWLESS!
Don’t you agree?
Isn’t it great how these ladies radiate fabulous instead of flaws?
There’s no reason why you can’t do the same.
3. This old business ad illustrates this too.
Remember the old Avis Rental Car advertisements?
What was Avis’ flaw?
They were NOT #1 in car rental — that was Hertz. So Avis flipped the flaw to something positive: “We’re #2, so we try harder.”
How can you turn your flaws to fabulous?
MY PAINTING —”Four Fabulous Artists”
I was inspired to paint four artists together in a single painting as shown in the photo below. This piece is large — 5'x4' — and I call it Perfect Imperfection. (You can see it in my online art gallery at www.TimPaulson.com/art-gallery) I’m likely the only artist who’s ever put these four artists together in a piece of art. I included each of them together to illustrate fabulous flaws.
I included Van Gogh because he didn’t hide the bandage around his head after he cut off his own ear. I included Mick Jagger because he doesn’t let his age — he’s 78 — get in the way of his fabulous live performances. Rembrandt didn’t hide the many wrinkles and blemishes on his face in his self-portraits.
I want to be more like Warhol, Van Gogh, Jagger, and Rembrandt in that I want to turn my flaws into fabulous. How about you?
Conclusion.
“Everyone will be famous for 15 minutes.” — Andy Warhol
Andy Warhol is known for the “everyone will be famous for 15 minutes” quote. You may or may not want to be famous; you may not want to flaunt flaws as extremely as he did. But you can certainly learn from how he did so and apply it with your own flavor, right?
Make the decision not to hide your flaws. By not hiding them, you’re saying to yourself and to the world they aren’t really flaws — they’re awesome.
It’s the person who can turn flaws into fabulous that is shattering the negative and skyrocketing success in life. It can be you.
Take this action right now…
As an artist and writer, I’ve seen how being more productive makes life even better, so I created a valuable little cheat sheet for increasing your PRODUCTIVITY immediately. If you follow this daily, your life will change very quickly.
Email timothypaulson1@gmail.com and put “Productivity” in the subject line, and I’ll email it right out to you.