Van Gogh and poverty

The same artist whose works are now sold for $100 million + had no takers in his lifetime

Van Gogh’s paintings sell for hundreds of millions of dollars today. However, he had no takers during his lifetime. He and his brother used to exchange long letters. In one of them, he wrote, “I cannot help it that my pictures do not sell. Nevertheless the time will come when people will see that they are worth more than the price of the paint.”

He died tragically at the age of 37 having sold just one painting in his lifetime. Perhaps he considered himself a failure. He certainly would have been branded a failure today where there is an obsession with growing fast and finding product-market fit.

The result of finding product-market fit quickly has certain advantages for startups and individual creators but it comes at the cost of true creativity. People now repackage content and are in a hurry to share 3 takeaways to get more out of your day and 7 ways to find spiritual calm and 9 ways to make $10,000 quickly. None of these gimmicks are going to go down in history.