The link between Michelangelo & Entrepreneurs

7 traits that Renaissance Artists share with modern-day Entrepreneurs

Having spent a week in Rome earlier this year, I was reminded of the incredible talent and achievements attained by artists of the Renaissance generation, none more so than Michelangelo. It got me thinking about the similarities between Renaissance Artists and modern-day Entrepreneurs. In fact, Michelangelo was not just an Artist, he was an Entrepreneur.

So here are some thoughts on the traits and characteristics that Entrepreneurs have in common with Michelangelo.

1) Determination

Talent aside, Michelangelo was an incredibly determined person. When Raphael turned the Pope down in 1505 to paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel he recommended Michelangelo, he did so thinking that it would be a disaster given the monumental task at hand.

Eventually, Michelangelo accepted the project and set about learning how to create a Fresco — Michelangelo was a Sculptor, not a Fresco Artist. During the first few months of the Sistine Chapel project, Michelangelo employed Fresco Students and observed as they painted with plaster and paint. After a few months observing them work, he sacked them and removed their work, confident that he could now paint Frescos.

Entrepreneurs and Startup founders are no different. Many companies were established by the sheer determination of Entrepreneurial founders who observed others and decided to create their own Fresco.

2) Resilience

For an insight into Michelangelo’s mindset, allow me to share one of his quotations:

“The greater danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short; but in setting our aim too low, and achieving our mark”

- Michelangelo

From 1505 until 1512 Michelangelo worked on the Sistine Chapel, leaving behind a work of art for generations to enjoy. Like his determination, Michelangelo’s resilience is reflected in his work. Let’s not forget that he was a Sculptor yet created one of the most famous paintings (Fresco) an enduring work of art known around the world.

Entrepreneurs share the same resilience as Michelangelo and strive to achieve their vision. Ben Francis, Owner of GymShark, is one such example of an Ecommerce founder who demonstrated sheer resilience to see his vision become reality, growing his business from 0-$100 million in 6 years.

3) Creative

The name Michelangelo is synonymous with Creativity. The Biblical creation narrative from the Book of Genesis, in which God gives life to Adam (see image below), was until recently considered that their fingers touched. When the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel was cleaned earlier this century, academics learned that their fingers did in fact not touch, rather connected by a spark, a light, an energy source.

Creativity is a spark, or a series of sparks, fundamental to Digital Entrepreneurs and Online Retailers, from product design, web design, user-experience, fulfilment, and delivery … the list is endless.

The point is that Entrepreneurs are where they are due to a healthy serving of creativity, underpinned by an insatiable appetite to build something.

4) Innovative

Michelangelo had an innovative mindset in abundance. A growth mindset. Innovators intuitively know when to leap from one learning curve to the next, they know when to pivot or continue on.

For Michelangelo the Sistine Chapel was one such event, jumping from a Sculptor to becoming a Fresco painter. Innovators tend to get restless when a curve starts to plateau in terms of progress or Sales. In what can only be described as a type of dissatisfaction.

Instead of enjoying the flat part of the curve (where it takes less effort for more output), innovators get bored and seek new learning curves where they can benefit from a rapidly changing rate of learning — stimulation. In fact, boredom or lack of a challenge (the Plateau phase) can be a trigger for Innovators and the creative mind.

Entrepreneurs regularly demonstrate innovative traits through action. Take Crua Outdoors, for example, their 2019 Crowdfunding campaign to finance a new product exceeded all expectations — the Crua Koala — a Hammock. As of today, Crua Outdoors has raised $625k via Kickstarter, far beyond their initial goal of $20k — To put this into perspective, that’s over 3,000% above their funding target.

Crua Outdoors is an Irish Company, located in the beautiful county of Kerry.

5) Strong Work ethic

Michelangelo spent 18 hours a day working on the Sistine Chapel — a piece of work that took him 4 years to complete — just the ceiling.

So, let’s think about this — 18 hours a day, 7 days a week over 4 years adds up to 26,208 hours of work — Wow!.

In his book, Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell claimed that anyone can be an expert in any field after 10,000 hours. Michelangelo said:

“If people knew how hard I had to work to gain my mastery, it wouldn’t seem so wonderful at all.”

- Michelangelo

It’s also worth noting that Michelangelo painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel while lying on his back … for 18 hours a day … and often slept on the same scaffolding he was working on. Once he finished the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, he started on the walls, this took him another 3–4 years to complete.

Entrepreneurial endeavors like Boohoo.com, founded in 2006, is a modern-day comparison. Reminiscing on the move (pivot) into e-commerce, Adam Kamani (CEO) said: “I think my Dad realized that online was becoming more of a thing and if someone else could do it then so could we, and we could do it better.” (Manchester Evening News, 2018)

Kamani noted that “The word losing isn’t in my Dad’s vocabulary. He had a tough upbringing in terms of having to work hard and sleep in the van and traveling to various cities throughout the night. He really had to work his backside off but that is what has made him the businessman he is today — he’s been through those hard times.” (Manchester Evening News, 2018)

On that note, I’d recommend reading the Gary Vaynerchuk description of 10 mental shifts befitting of an Entrepreneurial personality.

6) Competitive

Historians have well documented the fact that Michelangelo was not only creative, innovative but extremely competitive too. Remember the Raphael scenario above?

To demonstrate this let’s review his work on David.

When other artists considered the David project, many opted-out, believing the piece of Marble chosen was not good enough; Not Michelangelo. No, he took on the project.

Up until this point in time, David was depicted as a boy, small and clothed. Michelangelo had a vision and separated himself from his competitors. He created David as Man, 17 feet tall and naked!

Entrepreneurs have the same competitive streak as Michelangelo, so it makes sense that many ex-athletes possess this trait, like Michelangelo they have a tendency to push boundaries.

In 1990, two weeks after his mother died, Buster Douglas shocked the world by beating Mike Tyson. At 42-to-1 he was the underdog but KO’d Tyson in the tenth round — the first time Tyson ever went down. Douglas became the highest-paid athlete that year. He wrote Buster’s Backyard Bar-B-Q and the Knockout Diabetes Diet, featured on Oprah, Martha Stewart, Fox, and ESPN. His brand has since branched out Foreman-style, adding cookware and producing a new line of barbecue products.

Ireland’s Derval O’Rourke (Former World Indoor Champion and European Medalist) said that “My life as a professional athlete gave me the idea to write a healthy cookbook called “Food For the Fast Lane”, this book became a number one bestseller” (Derval.ie).

From the outside looking in it seems that this was one of Dervals’ Michelangelo moments. In her Blog Derval offers great tips for fit-foodies with an Ecommerce subscription for healthy living.

“Empower yourself to Run your life.” — Derval O’Rourke

7) Self Starter

This trait is easy to demonstrate through numerous examples of online Startups, albeit difficult to execute. Think about this — For 4 years Michelangelo awoke to spend 18 hours a day on his back painting the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.

The CEO of Autofulfil, Andy Byrne, is a modern-day example of a Self-Starter. In 2008 Andy went bust, bankrupt, losing an incredibly viable property development business in London to creditors due to cashflow challenges. In 2009 Andy picked himself up and set about creating new E-commerce ventures in Fulfilment services and Online Retailing. During this time it was clear to see that he adopted the 10 mental shifts that Gary Vaynerchuk discussed.

I had the opportunity to interview Andy during my MBA Thesis back in 2014, above all the following quote resonated with what it means to be an Entrepreneur:

“It was never about the money for me. While my personal ‘net worth’ was probably around the 10m (GBP) mark at one point, I didn’t even own car and lived in rented accommodation.” — Andy Byrne, 2014

What’s interesting is that for a lot of Entrepreneurs, money is never the objective. They don’t do what they do for financial gain; plus there’s no guarantee of that, so they don’t worry about it. Darius Foroux mentioned this in the 4 things that he gave up.

Final Thought

To conclude I’ll leave you with a quote from Ayn Rand:

“Money is only a tool. It will take you wherever you wish, but it will not replace you as the driver.” — Ayn Rand

What are your Michelangelo moments? Feel free to share in the comments below.