Why Sometimes Radical Change Is All That Works

THE GROOVE

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A radical change in your career may feel impossible. I don’t blame you; I was once that person too.

I spent so many years of my life studying law and then practicing in law firms, hating the whole thing. I dedicated countless hours exploring how to reinvent myself. And 14 years ago, I realized that progressive steps weren’t possible and would only become a distraction or an excuse to open my own business and do what I wanted to do. It was not only a brutally difficult decision, but I also had to deal with detractors and everyone’s skepticism that I would succeed. I had no choice. I had to do it, both for self-preservation and to attain fulfillment and happiness.

I’m far from being alone in the category of radical career changes. I think about Julia Child, who for years worked in advertising, media, and secret intelligence before writing her first cookbook when she was 50, launching her career as a celebrity chef in 1961 and landing her first TV show in 1962. That was radical.

And sometimes radical change can happen within your chosen career too. Slow and progressive evolution isn’t required if you are ready to take a chance on yourself. This is the context in which the career of Italian artist Salvo, born Salvatore Mangione in rural Sicily in 1947, deserves to be looked at.

Granting yourself permission to pursue something different often starts with self-reflection and acknowledging your desires. Understand that change is a natural part of growth and personal development. Embrace the idea that it's fine to explore new paths or interests. Cultivate self-compassion by recognizing that your happiness and fulfillment matter.

After relocating to Turin in 1968, Salvo became involved in the new Arte Povera, a conceptual movement that responded to the social and political unrest in Italy throughout the 1960s. His early works were based on texts, photographs, and neon, which gained him critical acclaim and institutional support.

But then in 1973, Salvo, who had trained originally as a painter, following a chance encounter with Giorgio de Chirico and his metaphysical paintings, decided that he just didn’t vibe anymore with conceptual art. So he went back to his easel and started painting again.

The critics, who at that time had a lot of weight in how artists were perceived, were not very kind to Salvo’s new direction. They saw figurative painting as an art form of the past. But Salvo didn’t care. When years later he was asked why if he had been so successful as a conceptual artist, he had abruptly started painting landscapes and still lives, he answered: “I just wanted to do something different. I went to galleries and only saw black and white. Then all the artists wanted to be in museums with the painters, but they played the piano, so I brought painting back into play.”

The great British writer and lexicographer Samuel Johnson once said, “Great works are performed, not by strength but by perseverance.”

This maxim isn’t taken seriously enough. In a culture of pressing buttons for fast results, instant gratification and lightning speed on everything, people have forgotten how much perseverance plays a part in attaining success. Even though studies have demonstrated that it is the most consistent factor present in the attainment of worthy goals.

For the next four decades until his death in 2015, Salvo made hundreds of lush paintings, filled with saturated colors, cotton candy trees, landscapes of Italy and fantastical scenes of places in the Middle East and Greece where he had traveled for inspiration - ruins and cities rendered in dreamy settings that still today look so fresh. This was 40 years before Nicolas Party, the Swiss phenomenon painter, would become a darling of the art world by making similar pastel landscapes that regularly sell for seven figures at auction.

Undoubtedly, Salvo’s work got better with each passing year, and when asked about his technical skills he said: “Perseverance can work miracles. Everyone knows it, it's a cliché; and yet how rare it is for someone to do it! I remember the first time I bought paints; I couldn't draw a thin, straight line - ’How do they do that?’ I wondered - then I learned.”

No work or life experience is ever in vain, especially for a creative thinker. Everything of value has a way to manifest itself in other areas and to have an application outside of what you currently do.

Salvo was always interested in maintaining a dialogue with the past. Instead of viewing painting in opposition to conceptual art, he merged the two, engaging in a personal research endeavor that lasted all his career. Everything he had learned before became handy to the new phase of his practice.

By the 1980s, when painting saw a resurgence in Europe, Salvo went from being an outlier to being at the center of the artistic conversation once again.

What once had been perceived as a radical change had then become the very same thing for which Salvo became known. Throughout his lifetime up until today, the market’s appetite for his paintings has proven this point. Not only is his estate represented by some of the most prestigious galleries in the world, but this year has witnessed a consistent increase in his auction prices - last month his 1991 painting “Il giorno fu pieno di lampi la sera verranno le stelle” broke all his records when it sold for $844,000 at Christie’s in London.

In the pursuit of a new path, embracing perseverance and patience is the anchor amidst the storm of change. Radical career shifts demand resilience beyond measure. Cultivate self-compassion by recognizing that your happiness and fulfillment matter. it's perfectly acceptable to venture into new territories. Seek support from friends, mentors, or resources that encourage and validate your desire for change and trust that once you leap, the net will appear. Ultimately, giving yourself permission to change involves recognizing your own agency in shaping your life.

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HOW CREATIVITY RULES THE WORLD

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TEDX TALK

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I share three lessons I have learned from artists that always work for anyone in their careers. Watch it here.

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