Art saved my Sanity!

As a small business owner, I used to strongly identify with the trend of business owners who see themselves as never good enough. I always thought I had to be better, to do better, that nothing was ever really ready to go out because it had to be perfect.

What I never anticipated realizing is that art would save my sanity, and ultimately my business too.

Art has been a part of my life for a very long time. I’ve been drawing and painting since junior high, but I never liked my own pieces. They always seemed to be short of worthy of being called “art.” It was a stress release...that I then hid in various nooks because I didn’t even want to throw it away on the off chance someone would see it!

So what changed?

My perspective! A few years ago, we had an organizer over to help clean up the house and organize the chaos into a composed home. What blew me away was when she saw some of my art, got excited, and began putting it on the walls. 

But when a professional organizer saw my art that I didn’t think of as true art and thought it was display-worthy, it began to shift my perspective.

Although my art wasn’t (and still isn’t) perfect, I began to see the potential. I realized that there was the beginnings of a beautiful command of color. That my personality was expressed through those bold colors and, sometimes, in the chaos of my abstract pieces. 

Instead of discounting my art entirely, I began to look for the promise of talent in it. Those I kept and nurtured and I quickly found that my art overall began to improve quickly!

Honestly, it’s the same in business.

A small business just isn’t “Steve Jobs” level from the get-go. By looking at what works, what doesn’t, and where the promise of talent is hidden, then choosing to nurture it, we create something beautiful. Even if it’s not perfect, it is still a business! It just needs some fine-tuning like my art did.

After I started applying that one concept to my art and my business, both began to excel quickly!

I’m surrounded by art that I actually love, and my business has grown farther than I ever originally conceived it would. This one concept has helped me let go of the need for everything to be perfect, and helped me grow and learn constantly. So please start to save your sanity: dive into the good things you’re doing, learn from what doesn’t work, and don’t discard your entire effort because of one bad aspect of it.

About the Author:

Stephanie Scheller is a TED speaker, a two-time best-selling author and the founder of Grow Disrupt. In just under a decade, Stephanie has been behind the scenes with more than 2500 small businesses. She has worked in groups and one-on-one to create total business transformation & help business owners live the life they got into business to create!