Allia and Oyaki

I have always had artists as clients. I have actually had a few famous and several great artists as my clients. These artists have been in many fields from music to fabric.

There is one simple inalienable rule for artists: an artist is not a business person. An artist must be guided by a businessperson either in the family or by marriage so that complete trust is possible.

The reason is straightforward. A businessperson will always have the upper hand in our society, therefore the businessperson must be acting in the interests of the artist.

I have never found an exception, never.

An artist client, Allia, once called me and claimed she had a perfect counter example: the famous Japanese designer and fiber master Oyaki san. I had no answer; as far as I knew Oyaki san was his own business manager and a great artist.  Could I be wrong?

A year or two later I was sitting with two friends in Tokyo when the wife, who is a great businessperson and runs her own corporation, got up to answer the phone. Her husband begged her pardon and said "She will be on the phone for an hour. Every day she gives business advice to her lifelong friend Oyaki san."  

So that is how an artist and a businessperson have combined to fulfill my core business advice to artists.

Neither of the names I used are real.