Lessons From The Prolific I.M. Pei

Many were saddened by the recent death of the masterful architect I.M. Pei. Throughout his celebrated career, he designed many iconic structures that are recognised and appreciated around the world, with notable examples including the glass-and-steel pyramid of the Louvre, the Bank of China Tower in Hong Kong and the Suzhou Museum.

There are many things that we can learn from Pei's career. For starters, he was a visionary, and his projects pushed the boundaries of the architecture of his times. Pei brought the east to the west, and the west to the east. He was a quick-minded businessman, and intelligently positioned himself in the market.

But the biggest thing that I personally took away from his career is this - that he was prolific.

Throughout his career, I.M. Pei produced a significant body of completed works that spanned the globe. He has left an undeniable footprint and a legacy behind which many appreciate him for.

The work of an architect is to ideate a structure. The structure is created twice - first in the architect's mind, then in real life. The architect does the first half, the engineer does the second.

A similar parallel would be a script writer and a movie director.

Looking at it from this perspective, we realise that Pei's legacy is even bigger than what we can physically see and touch. Much like the script writer, the thousands of drafts and architectural drawings that Pei created but were never constructed must be included in his legacy - they are there and already created in abstraction, just not in physical reality.

If you consider the artistic greats of history - Shakespeare, Mozart, Michelangelo, Picasso - they were not only masterful, but they were also extraordinarily prolific.

Is it the mastery of the craft that gives them the permission and the drive to become prolific, or does being prolific come first then makes them masterful?

It's a bit of a chicken and egg, but it would seem logical that regardless of where you start off, if you are prolific and constantly improve your craft you will eventually accomplish volume and mastery in your career.

This is great for the artists and creators of the world. They can leave behind something that progeny can touch, hold and appreciate - a book, a structure, a painting, a movie. But what about those of us that work in the business world, where the results that we produced are seemingly 'temporary', such as a sale that is made or a customer that is serviced?

How can you be prolific if you cannot easily quantify what you're leaving behind?

I think that this is looking at the issue from the wrong perspective.

Firstly, to be prolific, you have to be creating something that did not previously exist. If you take the example of an industrial-age factory worker that produces an enormous amount of product using machines but without deploying one bit of creativity, can you truly call him prolific?

Second, the significance of being prolific is in the amount of impact of whatever it is you are leaving behind has on other people. If you create a prolific body of new work but that which is not appreciated by anybody for whatever reason, being prolific does not carry much value. It's the impact on others that counts.

With these two points in mind, I think that whether your body of work is physical and tangible or more service-based is not relevant with regards to how prolific you are. If you are constantly pushing the boundaries of your work and creating new ways to improve it, and you focus on the amount of impact that your service has on other people, you will be able to look back at your career with the feeling of satisfaction that you have left behind a prolific legacy that has benefited others.

Sam Lee

www.epicpropertyinvestorsclub.com