Picasso was a controversial and complicated guy. He was an artist, but he also had an ego that was larger than life.
His work is often seen as a representation of his personal life — the darker parts of his personality. He has been accused of misogyny, and many have said that he had an obsession with women. He did not have many friends and didn’t seem to care much about what other people thought of him.
Some said Picasso was a bad person because he had no regard for society or morals, while others argued that this is what made him such a brilliant artist. Doesn’t sound like someone I’d want to grab a burger and a beer with, but hey that’s just me.
What I find interesting though — and what inspired me to write about him — is that there are several profound quotes attributed to Picasso. One line that particularly jumped out at me was:
“Action is the foundational key to all success.”
Not bad. I think it was pertinent to Picasso because he was said to be a work-a-holic (among other “holic” issues he had throughout his life). He was notorious for working all day, breaking briefly to eat and drink wine, and then getting back to work in his studio and painting all night. Then waking up and doing it all over again.
He was definitely an action-oriented guy. And he was right in this regard.
Action IS the foundation for success.
- You can talk about painting all you want, but that canvas isn’t going to cover itself.
- You can talk about going to the gym and getting healthy, but that workout isn’t going to do it by itself
- You can talk about doing that research for work or sending that important email, but it’s not going to happen by itself.
People sometimes refer to “baby steps” as being the easy way to get started before you ramp up to something more difficult. I get that. But I’d argue that even baby steps can be the hardest because they’re they first ones and the first ones are often the hardest.
Everything in life starts with a first action, and no matter how many shortcuts we take as humans we’re STILL responsible for those first steps.
So… while Picasso was truly ahead of his time in the paint studio, he was also pretty enlightened when it came down to brass tacks. He got stuff done.
He’s still an a-hole, but at least we know he was a prolific and productive a-hole.
Click here to view what he was really most famous for …… his paintings.
