As we struggle to grow, seek recognition and support our families with our artistic pursuits, we should never forget our great good fortune. Creative people have been blessed by their creator with the need produce great works. Greatness, however, is at best a relative term defined by the creative's audience.

Some receive greater gifts than others, but all are driven by the same need. Musicians, painters, carpenters, poets, sculptors, lawyers, bakers, scientists, accountants, teachers: all of these and more are creatives that bring vital energy to society.

Even those in the most mundane of professions, have on occasion, given us a glimpse of their creative genius. It's helpful to value everyone as equal creatives, that we who consider ourselves artists, can learn from. Listen to everyone who comments on your work. Consider their point of view. By all means, study the Masters, and learn from your contemporaries. Equally, give regard to those you might wrongly consider non-creatives. Their viewpoint may spur your greatest growth. It may also be the most painful, and possibly the most honest.