The Artist and The Businessman | Are You a Picasso or a Gary Vaynerchuk?

I heard an old fable recently that goes something like this…

The Artist

A German once visited a temple where he saw a sculptor making an idol of God.

Suddenly he saw a similar idol lying next to it.

Surprised, he asked the sculptor, “Do you need two statues of the same idol?”

“No” said the sculptor without looking up, “We need only one, but the first one got damaged at the last stage”

The gentleman examined the idol but did not find any apparent damage.

“Where is the damage?” he asked.

“There is a scratch on the nose of the idol” said the sculptor still busy with his work.

“Where are you going to install the idol?”

The sculptor replied that it would be installed on a pillar 20 feet high.

“If the idol is that far up who is going to know that there is a scratch on the nose?” the gentleman asked.

The sculptor stopped his work, looked up at the gentleman, smiled and said, “I will!”

The Businessman

And then as legend continues Gary Von Vaynerchuk waltzed over and said, “Attention and speed are all that matter!”

The visiting German excited by the infamous Gary Von Vaynerchuk’s presence asked for a handshake (this was before you could ask for a selfie).

The Sculptor paid them little attention.

The German and Gary quickly conversed about what a beautiful day it was before Gary rushed off for his 3:52pm — 3:55pm meeting in the castle.

The Gary Vaynerchuk of this fable was infamous for his sculpting business. He himself was not a sculptor, but his business was responsible for most of the sculptures in the city. Individually none of them were the best, but their plurality increased the overall beauty of the city therefore earning him the love of the king and villagers.

But then one day Gary Von Vaynerchuck died in a jousting accident. His last words were, “I have a huge obsession with having as many people as possible come to my funeral.”

His funeral was indeed overflowing, even the sculptor came to pay his respect.

Then the centuries passed.

Whose work do you think people would still be visiting today?

One could argue the sculptor’s work because of his attention to detail and love for the craft itself, but one could also argue Gary’s work because whereas the sculptor may have only finished 100 sculptures, Gary’s workers could have pumped out far more, therefore increasing the odds that at least one of them stood the test of time.

Or maybe Gary could have used his wealth to commission the building of one massive Gary Von Vaynerchuk sculpture in the city center.

But historically artists are more remembered than businessman.

What’s the difference between an artist and a businessman? A Piccasso and a Gary Vaynerchuk?

Artists often try to say with their art, “I was here”, businessman try to say with their business, “I hear you.”

Artists pursue beauty for the sake of beauty itself whereas businessmen pursue beauty for the sake of getting more attention so that they can build, “the biggest business in town.”

If the real Gary Vaynerchuk’s goal is to build the largest ad company in N.Y.C. as C.E.O. of Vaynermedia then what will that require?

The only way in our modern media environment to build the largest ad company is to produce what I call candy content.

This is your buzzfeed articles or listicles of 20 habits you need to do NOW, with little to no science or examples to back it up.

In other words, low information, high entertainment. Sweet with few calories.

If you go to Vaynermedia’s home page you’ll see a Budweiser ad they’re particularly proud in making due to its effectiveness in equating happiness with beer consumption.

If you scroll further down the home page you’ll see a list of companies Vaynermedia makes its advertisements for.

Gary takes pride in that he doesn’t make his millions from charging a high premium for his advice like a lot of other famous marketers and life coaches.

“You keep your $500 master classes. You keep your $5000 masterminds. You keep your $97 ebooks. You keep that in your pocket and you do you. Your gift to me is so much greater: Your attention and your word of mouth.”

Based on his company’s listed clients, he prefers to make his millions by increasing the sale of beer, liquor, soda, junk food, and television.

If he wants to build the largest ad company he has no choice but to promote instant-gratification products because these are the companies with the biggest budgets.

And again I like my fair share of beer and soda, but when Gary Vaynerchuk goes to sleep at night he must be self-aware enough to recognize the tradeoff he’s making.

He’s an extremely gifted persuader. One could call it his superpower.

So to me, it’s as if Superman chose to use his superhuman strength to build house extensions for suburban homes.

Not a bad thing in itself. He would be satisfying a market want and I’m sure Superman would offer an affordable price.

“Be reactionary. React to what the market wants.” — Gary Vaynerchuk

And this would keep Superman in a constant state of hustle to ward off any qualms he may feel in using his powers for something relatively superficial compared to what he could be doing instead.

Imagine if Picasso reacted to the market by using his painting superpower to paint ads and logos for deep pocketed corporations.

Smart businessmen pay attention to where people’s attention is going and then hop on the trend before everyone else catches on.

The businessman asks, “What does the market want?”

The artists asks, “What do I need?”

Artists look more inward than outward.

“I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free.” — Michelangelo

They go deep within themselves and pull out a song, poem, article, product, etc… because it’s inside them and they feel the NEED to make it real even if it risks them becoming a starving artist.

“Others have seen what is and asked why. I have seen what could be and asked why not.” — Picasso

Another difference I see between businessmen and artists is that a businessman often preaches, “more, more, more.” Try everything until something hits!

The artist thinks more in terms of what’s the essence of what I’m trying to create? How can I cut out the noise?

“Art is the elimination of the unnecessary.” — Picasso

This also translates into the difference of how a typical artist and businessman spend their day.

The businessman is about more so he’ll run around dividing his attention amongst a million different things.

The artist is about less so he’ll eliminate as many distractions as possible so he can spend as much time deep in flow on the one thing before him.

And finally Gary Vaynerchuk creates articles, books, videos, snaps because they get attention.

If they didn’t get attention, he wouldn’t do it.

Piccasso on the otherhand would have painted without an audience.

He painted for his soul.

“Art washes away the soul of everyday life.” — Picasso

He painted because he was Picasso.

“My mother told me, ‘If you are a soldier, you will become a general. If you are a monk, you will become the Pope.’ Instead, I was a painter, and became Picasso.”

These are some of the differences between an artist and a businessman.

We’re all a little bit a both. The world needs both.

But what are you mostly?

Now as a disclaimer… I admire Gary Vaynerchuk. I just can’t help but contemplate what if he used his gift for business building to build something more beneficial for humanity? I believe the more powerful we become the more responsible we are to ask less “What does the market want?” and ask more “What does the world need?”

He loves questions so hopefully you’ll help get these questions in front of his eyes by clapping, commenting, and sharing :)

“What do you think is the difference between an artist and a businessman?”

“What are 3 goals that if accomplished you believe would do the most amount of good for humanity? And what are you doing to help achieve those goals?”

Thanks for reading! Anthony Galli writes about the great men and women who made history so that we may make history in our own time. Watch his series @ The Great Life.