It’s a lament I’ve heard so many times.
From writers. Painters. Composers. Chefs. Singer-songwriters. Artists and performers, across nearly every genre or mode of expression. Even leaders and innovators, entrepreneurs, and execs.
If I stop suffering, will I still be able to do great work? Make great art?
Bit of a weird example, but stay with me…
I once knew someone who build a wildly successful chain of custom retail apparel locations. Beyond driven. Stunningly creative, inventive, successful by any measure. A true artist. They were trendsetters, taste-makers. Both in their designs, and the businesses they built.
Then their dad died.
The very same dad whose outward success, at least measured in the size of the enterprise, the revenue generated, and status accumulated, was a billion times bigger.
Within a year, my friend’s entire bu…