If You Park On Your Talent, Shame On You!

“The saddest thing in life is wasted talent.” – Lorenzo, the father in A Bronx Tale 

That quote has stayed with me ever since I saw the film in the theater, years ago. 

When I get into that zone of self-pity and that my art isn’t good enough, or that I’m creating good stuff that I have no idea what to do with, or that I’m just creating for the sake of creating and it’s such a waste – that’s when my brain pulls that quote back out. 

Because I’ll tell you, there’s so much BAD art out there, and for some bizarro reason, it’s getting sold! Yeah! People are buying bad art and hanging it in their homes, using it on their websites, posting it on Facebook and Instagram, or worse, using it to sell their business or their writing. Restaurants use some of the worst art ever, or buy generic art from stock sites, like Getty or iStock, which looks like it was made in Microsoft Paint. 

But, while many pursue their talent, faithfully, I have many friends, and people whom I know intimately, who refuse to acknowledge their talent, ability, and creative spirit – they sit on their art as though it were something not worth giving life to or nurturing.

If you had a dog, cat, or other pet – would you leave it in a cage and never feed it? Never let it run wild around the house or yard? Wrestle with it, caress it, love it like crazy? 

What about your kid? Would you ignore your kid and leave their nature of curiosity to sit idle on the floor, stagnating, without constantly striving to inspire and challenge them, or help to develop a dream for their spirit to soar on? 

Of course not!

So, then, why on earth would YOU sit on YOUR creative spirit? Why would you not embrace every moment in bringing to life that which did not exist before? Why would you not challenge, inspire, feed, caress, wrestle, or love your talent and let it run wild around the house or yard? 

The reality is, people in your life feed off YOUR influence – your inspiration and creative spirit – to get them motivated to dream and dance and sing and draw and play.

Life is so damned short and if you’re sitting on your talent, then you should, with all due respect, be ashamed of yourself. 

There is no excuse in the history of human existence that can justify it. Here. Check out the Museum of Bad Art if you want to see examples of people applying their gift, even though it’s just plain awful… you gotta admire them for doing it, though! 

Love & Cheers!