Easy Street
The painter Titian was a workhorse. As a teenager, he apprenticed for Giorgione, who taught him to paint by way of imitating his works. Titian, in other words, learned to paint by counterfeiting. He learned well, we know, because every now and then, a Giorgione piece is discovered to have been a Titian all along.
The next part of Titian’s career – decades of his life – are marked by what seem like tedious, low level hustling. There is hardly a person in Italy whose portrait he didn’t paint. He didn’t just do nobles and kings but their families and friends. Charles V, alone, he painted at least five times. For years he had the standing right to paint the Doge of Venice, and did successive portraits of multiple reigns. Often, he worked not by the patronage system, but on contract. Doing so much a pop, churning out paintings like a machine.
Vasari remarked that near Titian’s death, his style seems to change from a deliberate, painstaking technique to a loose, bold, even coarse series of brush strokes. Yet, from up close and afar, the works are still perfect – maybe better than what he did in his youth. Thinking that this was the key to his success, his imitators have tried to copy the style to mediocre and sloppy results. What they missed, Vasari realized, was that Titian’s comfort concealed the labor beneath the work; it hid the years spent in repetitious portrait painting, of working on the wage system, of learning every variety of face and light and committing it deep into his intuitive memory.
I guess what I mean to say is that we’re often like Titian’s imitators. We perceive a freedom and ease that simply does not exist. In fact, it not only doesn’t exist, but it obscures an effort we haven’t even begun to conceive. I remember when I first left school, I would see people come and go into the office while I was stuck with a schedule and a desk. It felt like they were free and I was in chains. Like, what it must feel to come and go as you please. To feel so secure in your position.
Now I have all that and I realize I was chasing a ghost. I don’t suddenly feel less constrained, I feel more. I’d seen the physical manifestations, what time they came in or where they answered the phone, and tricked myself into thinking that once you got there it all came easy. And of course, it doesn’t, it gets harder.
But if you can rid yourself of the pressure, you can at least start to understand that each one of theses phases has a purpose, purposes that are critically reliant on the phase that came before it. And appreciate it instead of struggling with resentment or dissatisfaction.
Ryan…I have been following your blog since you wrote about the Stoics on Tim Ferriss’ site. I’m a big fan of all of your recent postings but this one really hit home. Everybody wants to play golf like Tiger Woods. Despite the fact that they can spend thousands on the best equipment with the best lessons and the best courses – they fail to really understand the diligent, mindboggling number of hours Tiger Woods spent honing his craft.
Great post.
I really like the Titian example, but I find your anecdote about school versus “the real world” a bit unclear–but maybe that’s because I’m still a student.
Well said Corey, it reminds me of hackers who insist on buying the exact same equipment Tiger uses, like high end golf balls, when really they should be at the driving range.
Really nice post. Says more than simply “you’ve got to pay your dues.” Great stuff.
I read a lot about different ways to manage employees. When I started hiring I learned pretty quickly that you need to understand how to run a structured business before you can run an unstructured business. Some people seem to jump straight to creating an unstructured environment, but you probably don’t hear about where they learned what they’re really rebelling against. It doesn’t mean you have to do things badly before you can do them well – it just takes a lot of work to do it effortlessly.
It’s the Myth of the Montage, and it’s pervasive in our society. We see a 2 minute clip of Rocky training for 6 months… it plays a very minor role in the movie but it’s probably the most important part.
@Steven Place
So true. Also reminds me of the movie 8 Mile. Eminem begins to escape his environment of poverty through his music talent. But the movie devotes less than 5 minutes to him developing his music talent. I notice this in many rags to riches stories. It glosses over the incredible amount of work that’s required and the years of sweat equity put in to be extremely successful. Then again, if those kinds of stories devoted a proportional amount of time to the hard work, they would be extremely boring and would break the romantic ideal of the story.
Really great post! Reminds me of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu….the guys that have been doing it for years do the same techniques the new students do, except the moves work and the submissions and escapes happen smoothly and easily, and you wonder….what’s the secret?
I don’t know if I agree, Ryan. I do remember what it felt like to hold less responsibilities, and it was a lot easier–there was a sense of carefree-ness that I miss. But there was also a sense of helplessness, of being trapped (which everyone relates to at some point).
No doubt things are harder now than they were a few years ago, or even just a year ago, but I would never trade it back. But I’m also a lot more capable of completing them. Like you said, The Pressure is usually at the heart of our perceived problems, but we do tend to adapt to the new “constraints” while still retaining all the freedom that comes with being able to address it ourselves, without having it spoon-fed to us.
Our situations aren’t the same, but I work non-stop toward my own goals, from the minute I wake up to the minute I go to sleep, and I’ve never felt more free. How can you feel constrained if you’re doing something you love and are passionate about (even if it takes more energy than you used to put into anything else)?
Ilan this is one of the areas where you flat out have no idea what you’re talking about.
I love everything I just read.
In our world, there exists so many hours in a day. Some people spend those hours happy and joyous doing what they love and somehow being successful and abundant while doing so. Other people, spend them in struggle, frustration and misery and their success and abundance isn’t really much of an issue “cause they’re miserable”.
Personally, I feel like I understand the differences between these 2 groups and so I choose the former. If a person wants to choose tedium and struggle and grind before they reach success or joy, whether that be for a year or decades I totally support whatever choice they make. I wish you all the best in lifting your constraints and or pressure.
Why is that I think that most of your readers who comment on your blog are just a bunch of pompous, egomaniacal douche bags? Just look at the comments; they are trying too hard to impress. It must be frustrating that they don’t understand the underlying message of your blog: shut down your ego and just work. I am regular reader of your blog becuase we are very similar. We both consider ourselves stoics, yet we are epicureans at heart. It is the epicurean love of life that makes living day to day bearable.