Bob Ross was actually a career coach cleverly disguised as a painter on TV. Hear me out. The man hosted a 30 minute show on PBS where he painted beautiful landscapes while dispensing words of wisdom. Now his first TV painting goes on sale for nearly $10m which is insane for a painter who passed away in 1995, and whose paintings are nearly all stored in a storage facility and owned by Bob Ross Inc., the company founded by his former business partners Walt and Annette Kowalski.
Why do I think Bob Ross was actually a career coach? Because he used to throw out quotes like “It’s hard to see things when you are too close. Take a step back and look.”, “There are no mistakes, just happy accidents.”, “Go out on limb. That’s where the fruit is.”, and “You can do anything you want. This is your world.” (which I think the rapper Nas took some liberties with in his song The World Is Yours)
As a serial entrepreneur myself, Bob Ross’ words sound to me like a career coach or startup whisper trying to motivate a CEO to believe in themselves while they go out and conquer the world, or maybe that’s just what I hear in Bob Ross’ words.