The Groove Issue 105 - Trust Your Autonomy As Your Creative Source
TRUST YOUR AUTONOMY AS YOUR CREATIVE SOURCE
Autonomy, in the context of work, is your ability to be self-governing and independent in your thoughts and actions regardless of external circumstances. Being autonomous doesn’t mean being rebellious for the sake of creating controversy or being belligerent to ruffle other people’s feathers “just because.”
The process of being autonomous is supported by having a high level of expertise in what you do and having the confidence that you can do it in more interesting ways than what currently exists.
By being profoundly autonomous, Florine Stettheimer not only created her own artistic style as one of the first artists to document the social issues and events that shaped New York culturally at the beginning of the 20th century, but also controlled her market and paved her legacy in ways that nobody else had done before.
The Failure That Built an Autonomous Practice
Florine Stettheimer in New York ca. 1920.
When Knoedler Gallery gave Stettheimer her first solo show in 1916 at the age of 45, not one single painting sold. Of course, she wasn’t thrilled about this flop, but it prompted her to put her entire career under her own domain, autonomously handling both the production and the exhibition of her work.
Instead of having to depend on galleries, she held salons with her two sisters, inviting other artists, collectors, auctioneers, and friends to see her paintings and engage around them in meaningful ways. Basically, she created demand for her work that was “by invitation only”.
Stettheimer’s studio and salon in New York.
When Stettheimer died, her sister took the paintings she had left in her studio and placed them in important museums including The Whitney, The Met and MoMA, cementing the artist's place in history and pushing her legacy forward.
Her works in public collections influenced so many, including Andy Warhol, who repeatedly said that Stettheimer was his favorite artist.
Florine Stettheimer’s, Asbury Park South, 1920, is one of the very few of her paintings that ended up in a private collection after the Fisk University Museum in Nashville sold it in 2012 for $3 million.
Out of the 300 paintings she produced in her lifetime, it’s almost impossible to find one of her works in the market because only a handful of private collectors were able to get them while she was still alive. That’s how autonomous Stettheimer was.
Autonomy at the Root of Creativity
Originality, inventiveness, and creativity are always rooted in autonomy.
A study that measured the autonomy of 300 IT professionals in their workplaces showed that those who had the most freedom in how they executed their tasks were recognized as the most creative in their organizations.
They produced better work and solutions when granted the space to trust themselves and take the road less traveled. In other words: micromanaging people in companies or organizations simply kills creativity. And when that happens, a business invariably will lag behind their competitors.
Autonomy is also a primary driver of entrepreneurship, and for a business to be able to succeed, it must keep reinventing itself repeatedly.
Successful business owners act in a self-endorsed and self-congruent manner because they know their unique ideas are worth pursuing. Having a sense of ownership over your ideas and in how they take shape is one of the greatest intrinsic motivations for original work you can hope for.
Walt Whitman invites us to exercise our autonomy:
“Not I, nor anyone else can travel that road for you.
You must travel it by yourself.
It is not far. It is within reach.
Perhaps you have been on it since you were born, and did not know.”
You shouldn’t dismiss your autonomy to follow a safe path; the one that’s been tried and tested is not the one to take if you are looking to forge your own way.
UNLEASH YOUR CREATIVE GENIUS
I’ve put together a free webinar for those of you who are not members of my online course, Jumpstart.
If you’d like to watch it, please register here (it’s on auto-repeat every 15 minutes once you have registered).
HOW CREATIVITY RULES THE WORLD
I am super thrilled that my book won the International Book Award in the Business/Entrepreneurship category!
Have you already gotten your copy?
It’s in three formats: hardcover, eBook and audiobook.
AND AMAZON IS RUNNING A LIMITED TIME DEAL FOR THE EBOOK VERSION FOR $2.99 RIGHT NOW. GET IT HERE.
TEDX TALK
Have you already watched my TEDx Talk: “NFTs, Graffiti and Sedition: How Artists Invent The Future”?
I share three lessons I have learned from artists that always work for anyone in their careers. Watch it here.