The Art and the Artist

3 Minute Read
Too busy to read? Listen to the article on-the-go instead!
Pablo Picasso, the famous Spanish artist, was once walking through the market, when a woman spotted him and said, “I am a fan of your work. Could you please do a little drawing for me?” He smiled and quickly drew a small piece of art and handed it to her saying, “That will be worth one million dollars.” The woman said, “But it only took you 30 seconds to draw,” to which he replied, “No, it took me 30 years to draw it in 30 seconds.” From age 5, Picasso drew on anything he could get his hands on. At age 19, he left his family and went to Paris, the art capital. He had little money and lived in a small studio. Soon, his close friend, Carlos Casagemas, committed suicide. Picasso was traumatized, his paintings became sombre and art dealers left him. He then came home only to return to Paris a year later for another shot at a painting career. This time he struck gold. In 1904, a wealthy American Heiress, Gertrude Stein, bought his 10 paintings for 800 francs and her portrait became the famous Portrait of Gertrude Stein. In 1907, at 25, he created his breakthrough painting, Les Demoiselles d’Avignon. In 2015, his Les Femmes d’Alger (“Version O”), sold for a record $179.4 millon.
It may look like Picasso was an overnight success but in 1890, at age 8, he created his first art, The Picador and produced upto 50,000 artworks till he died at 91 in 1973. This means he spent about 30,295 (83x365) days working on his craft and produced an average of one new piece a day. His story reminds us, there are no shortcuts and brings out the timeless ingredients of success in investing: Patience, Resilience and Consistency, in stark contrast to the instant results we all seek today!!

About the author

Satish Prabhu is an avid blogger and has written close to 300 blogs on the basics of investing. He prefers the short story-telling format for his blogs and writes motivational life stories which are then weaved to give a message on investing. While content writing is his forte, financial literacy initiatives are close to his heart. He feels that investors can create wealth not by investing more money but by improving their behaviour with money. His stories give the message of patience, perseverance and resilience, the keys behavioral traits to be imbibed by investors. He is greatly inspired by the book ‘Psychology of Money’ by Morgan Housel. You can read all his blogs on his LinkedIn page.
On the professional front, Satish is the Vice President & Head of Content & Direct Customer Engagement at Franklin Templeton (FT) Asset Management (India) Pvt. Ltd since December 2013. Prior to FT, he worked for 8 years with CRISIL Ltd. (a Standard and Poor’s Company) and for over 7 years with the Stock Holding Corporation of India Ltd. (SHCIL).
He speaks at various investor education forums, conducts knowledge sharing sessions, webinars, podcasts for investors, advisors, relationship managers, corporates, among others.


















Copy link
Share on Facebook
Share on LinkedIn
Share on WhatsApp