“Sellout!”

It may only be seven letters, but the criticism is arguably the worst a creative can receive.

The fear of becoming one has haunted artists for some time. Defined as “a person who compromises his or her personal values, integrity, talent, or the like, for money or personal advancement,” some argue that it even plagued Shakespeare.

What’s interesting is that it’s an egregious insult lobbed at the creative industries disproportionately more than any other. Few of us would accuse a doctor, lawyer, or teacher of “selling out” for taking on work that failed to embody their life’s purpose.

Given that we all have to eat and put shelter over our heads and given “life purpose” work doesn’t come our way every day, let’s explore how we can reconcile making a living and making a mark.

A definition of terms

Vicki Robin and Joe Dominguez offered several profound insights in their 1992 New York Times bestseller, Your Money or Your Life. Some of which became all the more compelling in Robin’s 2008 revised edition.

“Blessed are those whose job is identical with their work, but that is far from all of us,” notes Robin. “Understanding that work, income, and job are different from one another prepares us to live in this rapidly changing world.”

“Work,” Robin argues, is best described by Lebanese poet Kahlil Gibran: “love made visible.” “Income,” on the other hand, is “the money you need to buy what you truly want.” And finally, a “job” is defined as “work you do for someone else that they ‘compensate’ you for, as in making up to you for not doing what you want, in the way you want, when you want.”

Powerful distinctions to make — especially if we’re struggling with the sellout slight.

Separating money from mission

If we can come to distinguish our “work” from a “job,” we can go a long way to dissolving any disapproval we may attract — internally as well as externally.

Sometimes, we’ll take a gig that elicits more of a “ho-hum” than a “hell yeah!” That’s okay. Provided we aren’t causing harm or compromising our values, it could ultimately be more irresponsible for us not to, therefore jeopardizing the well-being of both ourselves and those who depend on us. Selling and "selling out" aren’t automatically one and the same.

Prolific street artist Shepard Fairey has said, “To me, selling out is doing things purely for the money without concern for the consequences to integrity.” At the end of the day, only we can truly be the judge. On occasion, we may even find that money isn’t the motivation. Perhaps we want to work with a certain person. Perhaps we want to try wearing a different hat. Perhaps we want to dip our toes into the more mainstream waters.

If our decisions are guided by our values, and we ensure that we don’t cause harm to anyone or thing along the way, we can rest easy. As Eleanor Roosevelt pointed out, “Do what you feel in your heart to be right — for you’ll be criticized anyway. You’ll be damned if you do and damned if you don’t.”

As a parting gift, here’s a passage that can serve as a north star — an excerpt from Theodore Roosevelt’s “Citizenship In A Republic” speech, delivered in Paris, France, on April 23, 1910:

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”

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