Business – electronics

As you or your organization go through your different stages and transitions, stop and acknowledge the various successes that you accomplish along the way. Do not just wait for the big end result – you could miss out on some amazing “smaller” masterpieces along the way.

So often when we look at a successful person or organization, we tend to think of his/her/its success in terms of “Ah, she has finally arrived. She is now successful.” What we often overlook is that that person’s or organization’s “ultimate” success probably came in clear stages of success. The famous 20th century artist, Pablo Picasso, is a good example of this process.

Ultimately, Picasso is most known for his pinnacle style, Cubism. In Cubism, Picasso viewed the form, e.g., a human body, not in the way we see it in the real world, but instead, in terms of geometric shapes. He then rearranged those geometric shapes, purposefully camouflaging the forms in the geometry with a monochromatic palette.

However, Picasso did not start out in Cubism. Trained early in Spain, he later went through several STAGES in his artistic evolution before arriving at Cubism. For example, from 1901 to 1904, Picasso’s style manifested a strong sense of melancholy and poetic nuances in what has been called “The Blue Period.” The Blue Period also marked the transition in his style from classicism, in which he was strongly trained and accomplished, to the abstract style of his later cubism.

One of his works from this transitional pre-Cubist Blue Period was a 1903 painting, best known as “The Absinthe Drinker,” although formally named “Portrait of Angel Fernandez de Soto.” This work is very popular now in the 21st century, often reproduced in pop culture forms, such as greeting cards, bookmarks and even t-shirts. Christie’s auction house sold “The Absinthe Drinker” in London in 2010 for $56.63 million. Not a bad chunk of change for a painting that was done in one of an artist’s evolving stages! By the way, the painting was sold by composer Andrew Lloyd Webber’s charitable foundation with proceeds going to its work promoting the arts. Ah, the arts supporting the arts…gotta’ love it!

Pay closer attention to the smaller successes that occur in your own transitional phases or those of your organization. By focusing on and acknowledging them, you will be less likely to let some of your own “lesser” masterpieces slip by unnoticed.

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