Since our first day in school we are taught that we only get a few chances to prove ourselves, only a few times that we can take that test that will determine if we are worthy and capable or if we are failures in the eyes of the system. But the market never judges, it doesn’t even care if we failed to produce a successful exhibition the first one hundred times. If the last one finally clicks with our audience, our streak of incompetence is magically transformed into a testament of perseverance.

All success stories, regardless if in the field of fine art, business or invention, are usually paved with failure — and not just with the occasional small mishap or two, many come in the form of a constant stream of defeat. Edison (even though a contemptible man) knew what it meant to be in the vanguard of innovation. He made more than one thousand unsuccessful attempts at inventing the light bulb, but when a reporter asked, “How did it feel to fail 1,000 times?” Edison replied, “I didn’t fail 1,000 times. The light bulb was an invention with 1,000 steps.”

It isn’t wrong to fail, it is part of life to do so, and only those who fail enough times actually achieve their goals, while those who are afraid to make even the smallest of mistakes almost never make their dreams into a reality. But if you’re selling to the open market, this comes as no real surprise; sometimes you do good work and people like it, sometimes they don’t and sometimes the work just isn’t what is could be and the resulting sales or non-sales stand as proof.

But you don’t just stop after a few tries to paint a portrait of someone who commissioned you, you work on it until it’s done and you’re proud of what you made. And you don’t stop growing both your technical and creative skills just because the last time you showed your work, nobody really cared or got the point you were trying to get across. You go on, you paint, you try again and maybe in a week or month you get a bit better and it shows in the rise of your print sales or in the amount of orders in your Etsy shop.

But what if you were one of many artists who live in places where the free market isn’t really functioning the way it should? What if your livelihood depended on two chances a year. Win both and you can work for another year, loose one and you’ll be struggling but will survive, lose both and nothing in the world will help you get back on track until the next year, when again the nerve wrecking begins anew.

This is the life of government founded artists in Slovenia, Croatia, Macedonia and probably many other countries around the world. While the periods for grant applications vary from one year to 4 years, all these countries have one thing in common. Even after you have left the nonfunctional and outdated school system behind, you step into a world that operates exactly the same. 71 points. Lower than that and you just don’t make the team, you can’t play with the other artists and the golden arches of flipping patties await you and your diploma until the next year when you can try again.

Grants and government founding are wonderful, especially for those artists who do not wish to produce “marketable goods” and “art that sells” (and some forms of creativity really aren’t made to be bought as collectables, but to tell messages of inequality or discrimination or hope or love to as many souls as they can touch — think political art). But as unintrusive as such funding can be to the realisation of artistic ideas, it almost always comes with the cost of pure uncertainty, when one becomes dependant on such sources of income to survive.

So the conundrum, while the world doesn’t really punish particular instances of failure as much as we’re taught to believe, the world of government grants and stipends does. There is no second chance to win that 6,000 € non-refundable grant, not until next year that is, but loose a few good paying customers to competition or god forbid IKEA, and you’ll probably be back on your  feet in a couple of months. Diversification isn’t just for investors and people who like Bitcoin, it should be one of the top priorities for anyone wishing to become or already being a full-time artist.