When You Get Things Wrong

I spent a good chunk of my day yesterday getting the gallery ready for the Holidays.

I pulled out my boxes of decorations, did a deep clean, and got out my spackle and paint to patch over the nail holes from the last show. 

As I made my rounds with my spackle and putty knife, I was thinking about how many holes I’ve put into these walls over the past 3.5 years.

And how it takes just an hour to go through the space and start fresh…like an etch a sketch.

No trace of the previous show…no trace of the holes that the nails made to hang the work…and no trace of the mistake holes…the ones either too high, or too low or too close or too far away from the piece next to it.

I’ve gotten pretty good over the years eyeballing where to put the nails…but there are always mistakes, so when the show comes down…sometimes there is a cluster of holes in one area that need to be filled.

And sometimes, I go several shows without filling all the holes…just touching up the visible ones...leaving a shooting gallery of holes hidden behind the hanging work.  

If you were to ask me the #1 reason for the success I've had in my art business…it would boil down to not being scared to make the holes.

Some of you look at the blank wall and think “But what if I mess it up?”

I just expect that I'll mess it up.

There will always be just as many “wrong holes” as “right holes” when you are taking action in your art business. Sometimes way more.

Getting it wrong is what helps get it right.

Your business isn’t fragile.

It's really not. 

Walls can be patched and painted.

Be willing to be completely uninhibited in the holes you make.

In your marketing, in your art, in your selling, in the shows you try, in the questions you ask, in the stories you share, in the emails you send, in the decisions you make.

Everything is always happening FOR you.  

You are amazing and the world needs you and your work. 

Go make some holes!