Are You Buying Art or Sourcing Time?
If economic value is increasingly deriving to knowledge, inspiration, and creativity– why is art still viewed as a commodity? Maybe we should look at buying art as an investment of sourcing time.
The narrow-gauge mindset of the past is insufficient for today’s business world.
Consumers are not loyal to cheap comedies. They crave the unique, the remarkable and the human. At least that is what Seth Godin is tell us in his new book, “Linchpin”.
Unfortunately, most business managers are deaf, dumb and blind when it comes to valuing the creative process. They learned how to follow instruction and the power of consumption as an aid for social approval.
This is illustrated perfectly by a story about railroad baron Collis P. Huntington, who visited the Eiffel Tower just after its completion. When an interviewer for a Paris newspaper asked him for a critique, he said, “ Your Eiffel Tower is all very well, but where’s the money in it?”
It’s not that spreadsheet thinking is wrong. It’s just inadequate. An artist might have offered a completely different critique of the tower, “What a stirring symbol of achievement! From now on, people will never forget their visit to Paris.” Accounting to one estimate more than $120 billion worth of Eiffel Tower souvenirs has been sold since 1897. The trinket business alone has been worth the investment.
