Spiritual Steps on the Road to Success

In July, I spoke at a church in London about Spiritual Steps on the Road to Success. Many in the audience were artists and those who spoke to me afterwards told me how difficult it was for them to get paid, and for them to know what to charge. They felt called to do their work, and they loved it. But it was clear that they weren’t making a living at it, and didn’t know how to.

Those of us who feel called to do our work sometimes think that God calls us to live on air. We’re supposed to give away our talents and our work for free, or for a minimal amount, and somehow poverty seems to be part of the equation. But all work is an exchange of value. In many cases, we go to buy something and we exchange our money for what we desire. Or we do a trade for two services that we agree are of equal value – you give me two massages and I’ll read your book proposal and give you some notes.  And sometimes that works – especially between friends and colleagues. But when it comes time to put a price on our work, we cringe, and ho-hum, and step back. Or, we overcharge and never get any clients.

I have noticed that there can be two attitudes around our work, especially when it’s in the artistic realm. Some feel they don’t deserve to get well paid for what they love to do. They don’t recognize the inspiration that can come from their work, or the aesthetic that adds so much to a room, or the skills of a fellow writer who helps them hone their stories and their sentences. They have bought into the world’s values that everything they pay for has to be about things that fit the conventional ideas of living well – new clothes, Starbucks’ coffee, stocks and bonds.  They feel that anything original needs to be underpriced because the world has not yet decided what it’s worth. In most cases, if someone offered them a great deal of money for their art work or their writing, they’d agree, and take the money, but they don’t want to be the one to assess value. So they undercharge, or don’t charge at all.

There are some who go to the opposite extreme. They feel entitled, and overcharge. They figure if someone else has been given good money for their painting, or writing, or performance, then they should get a good deal of money as well. They don’t value experience, preparation, and the time that it takes to learn one’s art and craft – they just think they deserve everything.

Neither attitude values the act of creation – which from a spiritual viewpoint, is one of the most necessary acts in our human life. The world moves forward through originality. God, as Creator, has given us huge riches that are worth much – and deserve to be cared for and preserved. If we see God’s acts of creation as of great value, we, who are made in the creative image of God, can see our creations also as worthy.

That means that we train others to value things beyond the world values. If we don’t think our art is worth much, others won’t. They depend on us to recognize the value of what we do, and to have the confidence and professionalism to put a value on it.

I’m a Quaker, and Quakers have a history of valuing a high standard. Quakers often invested in one good suit, or fewer clothes but higher quality. Not only did the clothes, or other objects, last longer, but the Quakers weren’t colluding with a consumer culture that asked them to buy, buy, buy, and to keep consuming. It was said that Quakers came to do good, and ended up doing well. And they did well in their businesses, without apology but with great generosity.

They partly did well because they had one standard by which they treated all customers. They didn’t charge one amount for the rich, and one for the poor, or one amount when an adult came to their stores, and another when innocent children came in, who could more easily be taken advantage of.  They recognized the value of their services, but didn’t use their services to take advantage of others.

I don’t think God asks us to be poor, nor to be rich. I’m not a proponent of the Prosperity Gospel that believes that if we’re rich, God must love us more. And if we’re not, we must be doing something wrong and pushing money away. But I do believe that if we’re called to do some work, whether artistic or not, that we should be cared for and be able to make a decent living from our work. I don’t believe our work should be devalued, just because the world can’t fit it neatly into its categories. We are just as apt to be called to be artists as to be businesspeople, or nurses, or bus drivers. And even artists deserve to make a living at their art.