What an artist taught a businessman – Thank You Patrick Skoff

Last night, I had the great pleasure of attending a salon discussion and art party for the great Chicago artist, Patrick Skoff. The event was hosted by IVY Connects, a group that has 10,000+ members in New York, DC, Boston, San Francisco, LA, and now Chicago. Special shout out to the group’s co-founders Philip Triebel and Beri Meric, and to their team, Paul Sabayrac, Julia Sommer, and Catherine Lowell for always putting up such great and fun events. Personally I hate networking, and just “meeting people”, but I am always pleasantly surprised by the types of interesting people I meet, and conversations that occur at IVY, so again, special shout out to them.

So back to Patrick Skoff, if you haven’t heard of him, just google him, you’ll find plenty of articles, and even a Wikipedia page to give you some more background on his work. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrick_Skoff

Upon listening to Patrick speak about his story, his work, and his ultimate success; I was incredibly impressed, not only by his artistic ability, but also by his marketing and branding genius. Given that my grandmother was an artist, I have a close connection to art, but since I have little artistic skill myself, I can only appreciate the brilliance that goes into artistry. As a businessman, a start-up entrepreneur, and on the other side, an angel investor who sees hundreds and hundreds of companies each year, I can most readily connect with his marketing genius, and branding prowess.

Let me clarify by saying Patrick is an artist at heart, and while I believe he was smart enough to understand the reciprocity effect of his “Free Art Give-A-Way”, like many successful creative types, they get there through their passion, persistence, and a great deal of serendipity. But from his journey, I am reminded of several important lessons.

1. Breakout stars discover unconventional paths to stardom – Patrick spoke about the difficulties of young artists trying to get their work into art galleries, a path of many traditional artists. The same goes for many industries, as the same brick walls apply for actors with agents, and start-up entrepreneurs waiting to get their big meeting with the Fortune 500 sales team. Yet Patrick, having once succumb to the pain of the traditional path, as he showed off his first piece of work, patched together after he tore it up in frustration of the art industry, started giving his art away through his “Art Hunts”, and thus grew a following and a deep fascination toward his work. Youtube, Vine, have been a way for entertainment stars to break out, blogs for writers, and the successful start-up entrepreneurs understand this as well, as the great ones find the unconventional ways to break out.

2. Do a little for you, do a little for your pocket book – All creative types, and entrepreneurs alike have a tendency to be stubborn as shit. To the pure creative and artistic individual, they often fear losing their creative integrity once someone else directs their work. Patrick having had to exit the art world once, has the awareness to understand that genius itself doesn’t put food on the table, genius applied to give people what they want, does. All of his work is inspiring and magnificent, but he does paint the word “LOVE” more often than not, because people love it, and because it pays. That ultimately allows him to be artist, which is what he truly loves. Frankly, my company has taken contracts in China for projects that have no real direction, but it pays a lot of money, and it allows me to invest in projects that I am passionate about. A focus on the mission and purpose is key, but if you can’t keep the lights on, that mission is as good as dead.

3. Have fun – Patrick throws pink shades on some of his paints, not because of any particular meaning, but because it’s fun! He’s a very down to earth person who is very appreciative of the position that he is in. Not everything we do has to have a deeper purpose or underlying meaning, nor does everything have to be so serious and life and death. Have pursuits, have passions, but by god, have fun!!!! Otherwise, what’s the point?!?! Too often we are pressured by society to take life too seriously in pursuit of our goals and passions, when in fact, it’s been scientifically proven that when we are happier, we do better work. So smile, enjoy yourself, and put a little pep into your everyday.

Cheers!