An excerpt from The Art of Earning:
The bad news is: the economic scenery is changing.
The good news is: the economic scenery is changing.
While outsourcing, automation, and the computerization of the workforce may be bad for some, it is good for you.
You, artist, are a hot commodity. We are entering a golden age where passion, purpose, and creativity is valued above routine.
We are moving from an economy and a society built on the logical, linear, computerlike capabilities of the Information Age to an economy and a society built on the inventive, empathic, big-picture capabilities of what’s rising in its place, the Conceptual Age.
— Daniel Pink, A Whole New Mind
If you’d like all the finer points on this concept, read A Whole New Mind. I’m here to draw the blunt conclusion that he never explicitly states:
Artists have a big opportunity to make a lot of money in the New Economy.
To one degree or another, people in mature markets have grown sick of excess, tired of the constant push to accumulate more. The purveyors of hyperconsumerism promised happiness and ease; instead we are seeing record levels of stress and anxiety.
They still want MORE, but now they are defining that differently. Not more shiny trifles and mountains of disposable consumer goods, but, rather, more meaning, more deeply felt connections, more substance, and more of a sense of purpose.
— Prosumer Report, EURO RSCG Worldwide
If you can position yourself as a marketer of meaning & depth, you will be a big player in the emerging New Economy.
The great thing about this is that the manipulation here is minimal. There is always some manipulation.
You genuinely are a purveyor of profound meaning. Your work is not only useful but transformative. If you haven’t discovered that yet, given time, energy, and the deep desire for greatness, you will. You will see how others are changed because they own a piece of your art or interact with your ideas.
Own that power. Stand up and be counted. And understand that transformation is valuable.
***
In college, everyone was jealous of the Actuarial Science kids. My alma mater, Lebanon Valley College, was one of a limited number of institutions where you could get a degree in the mathematical game of probability and insurance premiums.
The program was near impossible to get into, harder still to graduate from. When you graduated, you could get a job but you were expected to complete a series of exams within a short period of time.
Oh, but after those exams!
After those exams were completed, you could relax knowing a good paying job was waiting for you. Nay, not waiting but calling for you.
This, we are taught, is the purpose of education. You go through the motions, you pass the exams, you learn the skills, you prepare for a job. We long to desire careers that require this kind of path.
But not you and I. Oh no, we’re the English, Music, Anthropology, and History majors. Or, like me, you chose something even more esoteric and majored in Religion with a focus on contemporary Christian theology.
I’ll admit to coveting the clear path of the ActSci kids.
But jobs with clear paths also have a clear path to automation & computerization.
These jobs will not exist 20 years from now. Not in any recognizable form, that is.
While we long to learn skills we’ve been told will fetch a good price at market, it’s those skills that are being cheapened. The strengths that will earn hefty sums as the New Economy evolves are those that combine service with meaning, consumption with experience.
Sound familiar, artist?
How are you offering a transformational perspective on mechanical skills? Do you see this perspective as “weird” or crazy valuable?
My newest guide, The Art of Earning, is dropping today. It’s all about understanding your relationship to money, why earning more isn’t something to be feared, and how you can get right by your own value. Bottom line: making money should be beautiful. Snag your copy – and name your own price – here.
Your emotions about money deeply affect your experience with money. Tara Gentile’s The Art of Earning is an intelligent treatise on our relationship with money. Her gentle questions guide us to approach money and work with natural authenticity and grace. I loved it.– Bridget Pilloud | intuitivebridge.com | creator of the Lucky 7 Process
