Sales -v- crippling artists block

I coached a guy. He was important. A big cheese. And he was retiring. But he still wanted to make a difference in the world and he was going to, I don't know, write a book or something.

And I can be a cynical bugger, and I said "you'll just be howling into the wind". I don't know if that's exactly the way I put it but .. more or less.

Who cares what some retired guy thinks? Opinions are like ... well you know the rest.

How could he know he's relevant?

Look, I'm not saying I'm right, here, but I'm a marketer, and here's what I've got.

The context is he was .. well, imagine he was an international logistics expert .. you know, transport, getting stuff from A to B safely.

He's relevant if people pay him.

That's it.

Look, sounding off is great. I'm doing it now and let me tell you, it feels fantastic. We have evolved to sound off, to vent our opinion, it's how society works, it's how we won as a species. Evolution made sex feel good so we'd do that, it made sounding off feel good so we'd communicate what we think.

But please God save me from old guys and their opinions. (Yes, I am one.) Who gives a shit what they think, honestly?

Unless you get paid.

Getting paid says your opinion is worth something to someone else.

It says you made a difference.

And I think there are parallels with art.

You can paint in your studio and it feels good and so on. Nobody's stopping you doing that.

But it's a whole different thing if someone says "that painting of yours .. it makes enough difference to me that I'm willing to give you some of my money for it".

It changes things. You're not just arting into the void. You're making a difference.

And that feels good.