Real Artists Don’t Starve

Jeff Goins
Date Started: December 14, 2018
Date Finished: December 16, 2018
Reason Book was Chosen:
I heard this author interviewed in a Entreleadership podcast episode. My wife and I are both musicians and I thought this would be a good book to read.

My Thoughts

Here is the book’s premise:

“Not long ago we embraced the story of the starving artist as fact, but today we have a better story: Real artists don’t starve.”

Author Jeff Goins contrasts the Starving Artist and the Thriving Artist through the lens of three M’s:

  • Mindset
  • Market
  • Money

This is a very helpful book that nicely packages concepts from authors such as Seth Godin and Austin Kleon with a variety of examples from the distant and recent past. Goins bursts the starving author myth by starting out the book talking about Michelangelo, who was worth an estimated $47million in today’s dollars.

Goins uses these examples to show how you can become a thriving artist. He discusses topics such as studying under an apprentice, finding patrons, choosing the right location, collaboration, and sharing your work. He also discusses the incorrect assumption that doing free work will lead to paid work. For mindset, he says that you set the tone for how people treat you in how you treat your work.

If you are a creative or are looking to explore a creative side of yourself, get this book. It’s a relatively quick read and it’s one that will provide some great ideas and sparks to get you going on your path to being a thriving rather than starving artist.

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