An Inspiring True Story

There was a young artist in Italy trying to make a living by selling his paintings on the street.  A very rich woman came and offered him $1,000 to have her portrait painted. The artist put in his best effort and time to paint her portrait. 

When it was completed, the woman didn’t like how she looked (in fact, that was exactly how she looked) and backed out on her promise. She refused to pay anything for the work and said it was a piece of trash. The artist was very hurt by the wealthy woman and told her that one day, she would buy back that painting at more than 600 times the price. The woman scoffed and left.

The humiliated artist went back to his hometown and continued improving his painting skill. 10 years later, he became a renowned artist and held an art exhibition. It attracted the rich and famous and woman’s circle of friends who attended the exhibition told the woman about the amazing artist and his works. They said that all his paintings but one, were snapped up.  It was the portrait of a woman and not for sale.  Everyone commented that the woman in the portrait looked so much like her.  Curious, the woman went to the art gallery to see for herself.  There, standing at the centre stage of the gallery was the portrait of her that the artist had painted 10 years ago.  It was titled “THIEF”.  The woman was dumbfounded and apologised to the artist. And yes, she paid 600 times above the original price for that piece of painting – $600,000.  The name of the young artist is Picasso.

By sharing with you this story, I hope just like Picasso, believe in yourself and never let others underestimate your self-worth.