I recently spent a long weekend in Rome. While I was there, I was surrounded by art, by masterpieces. Creativity was everywhere.

From the painters I walked by in the promenade, to the Sistine Chapel and Coliseum, to the artful way dishes are put together. You could tell everything was created with such passion, precision, and focus.

We don’t have time anymore to produce work of that quality.

(image via Flickr)

We live in such a fast-paced world of meetings, emails, notifications and various other tasks that we simply can’t find the time to sit down and really focus. All these tools designed to help us work, actually do everything but.

On top of this, there’s other day-to-day pressures. You’re below targets, your boss is unhappy, they wanted results yesterday, and so on, and so on…

At least that’s the perception. What we say as an excuse.

But those painters in the promenade, they sit in a crowded area and are able to focus on nothing but their work. No people watching, no phone checking, no incoming emails.

It’s still possible to create a masterpiece. It just requires patience and focus a lot of us don’t want to deal with.

Michelangelo didn’t finish Pope Julius II’s tomb until 40 years after he started, needing to start over or pivot several times. He worked on the Sistine Chapel’s ceiling for 3 years, enduring numerous difficulties and grueling day-to-day work.

That kind of dedication doesn’t mesh with today’s content culture, where there are 1,400 new blog posts published each minute.

But in order to create masterpiece content, you need to work like a master.

Michelangelo: world-class content marketer

The works Michelangelo produced were truly world-class masterpieces. The level of detail put into the Sistine Chapel is unbelievable.

“The future belongs to those who learn more skills and combine them in creative ways.” –