Being a brilliant technician does not qualify you to be in business owner

One of my recent passions is the arts. I’ve met passionate people in my time, but the level of passion I experience from musicians is mind blowing. I see people who give it their all, people who fail and get up to achieve their targets.

I have found that the level of the performances by “amateurs” is just as great as that of “the professionals”. Some of the performances that we see on TV don’t even come close to the ones I’ve had the pleasure of seeing; however the remunerations of the professionals and the amateurs are too far apart.

In one instance, a performing artist gets paid millions and in the other the artist gets paid a stipend.

If you ask what the difference is between the two, you will find that is simple matter of “branding”.

In other words, the artist that is well branded gets to be paid a whole lot more money, while the other struggles to become a great earner.

How the world views you and whether the world knows about you play a very crucial role in the artist’s career and earning potential.

The most important lesson to take from this is that talent alone is not enough.

The fact that you are a talented artist or a skilled professional does not guarantee automatic success.

Calvin Coolidge once said: “nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent”, and I truly believe this, although at first I could understand what he meant by this.

The world and our economy can do with a lot of people who get paid to do what they love, and if you do not want the money then do it for honour and give the money to those who need it the most, such as charity organisations.

Kholofelo Pholafudi is the author of The Psychology, Science & Art of Turning Contacts into Connections