It would be a stretch to call Vincent van Gogh an entrepreneur (at least in the sense we usually use the term). He never ran a small business. In fact, despite having painted more than 2100 watercolors and oil paintings, he only sold one. But that didn’t stop him, he knew his paintings were good. In a letter to his brother Theo, he wrote: “I can’t change the fact that my paintings don’t sell. But the time will come when people will recognize that they are worth more than the value of the paints used in the picture.”
van Gogh is the embodiment of so many of the characteristics of successful entrepreneurs and small business owners. He believed in himself, even when others thought he was foolish or untalented. He was passionate about his work. He believed in hard work and silencing his critics. And he was a little bit crazy. Probably sounds like an entrepreneur you know.
Here are a few of the things that Vincent van Gogh had to say about work, passion, and taking on impossible projects:
“Your profession is not what brings home your weekly paycheck, your profession is what you’re put here on earth to do, with such passion and such intensity that it becomes spiritual in calling.”
“The beginning is perhaps more difficult than anything else, but keep heart, it will turn out all right.”
“Great things are not done by impulse, but by a series of small things brought together.”
“If you hear a voice within you say you cannot paint, then by all means paint and that voice will be silenced.”
“I would rather die of passion than of boredom.”
“I am seeking, I am striving, I am in it with all my heart.”
“I am always doing what I cannot do yet, in order to learn how to do it.”
“The fishermen know that the sea is dangerous and the storm terrible, but they have never found these dangers sufficient reason for remaining ashore.”
“What would life be if we had no courage to attempt anything?”
“I am still far from being what I want to be, but with God’s help I shall succeed.”
—Vincent van Gogh, Artist
