Study the Bamboo.

Question: Why are you interested in a career in the entertainment industry? You could be a chef, car salesman, broker, barista, or any number of other professions. Artists, performers, and other creative workers have a ready made reason: they have a compelling desire to express their work through their art, music, dance, acting, etc. Seems pretty straightforward. But what of the rest of us? You might have been a former artist or performer, but in my experience many of you came into this business through another, perhaps adjacent path. That path is fascinating to me, and it should be thought provoking to you as well.

Say we start with the premise that you wanted to be a part of something creative that fulfills a higher purpose; something more meaningful than slogging through the week, drawing a paycheck just so you could go skiing on the weekend. It's often called a "passion" for the work. But have you really dug deep to ask what that passion is?

As an amateur student of Chinese philosophy and of Taoism in particular for many years, everything I know would fit in a thimble of all there is to know. But for me Taoism provides an intuitive approach to balancing the mechanisms of management in a creative world such as the performing arts. The Tao of Arts Management, if you will.

During the Warring States period of Chinese history (471-221 B.C.E), the Hundred Schools of Thought emerged. This was before China became unified China. The dominant philosophies of the period were Confucianism, Taoism, and Legalism. Confucianism focused on moral governance and social harmony, Taoism emphasized alignment with the natural order, and Legalism prioritized institutional structures and state power. Following the unification of China, and by the Song dynasty (960-1279 B.C.E.), Neo-Confucianism developed as a grand synthesis: a movement that reclaimed Confucian moral action, absorbed the metaphysical richness of Taoism, and anchored everything in the concept of li, or "principle of thought." The original etymological root of the word Li refers to the natural grain in jade.

Zhu Xi (1130-1200) was a leading philosopher of Neo-Confucianism. He argued that to understand principle, one must systematically examine external reality, study texts, and master systems. The stonecutter must master the tools for cutting the stone. However, if the cutter doesn't respect the natural grain of the jade, they will shatter the stone, regardless of how skilled they are with the chisel.

Enter Wang Yangming (1472–1529). A century after Zhu Xi, Wang argued that looking for Li purely in external mechanics was a trap. In a famous story recorded in the Chuanxilu (Instructions for Practical Living), Wang followed Zhu Xi’s advice and sat in a courtyard trying to "investigate the principle" of a stalk of bamboo. After seven days of staring at the plant, he collapsed from physical and mental fatigue, realizing he hadn’t learned a thing. What he did discover was that Li is not hidden inside external objects or administrative rules; it resides within the human Heart/Mind (Xin). External knowledge without internal realization is meaningless. This became known as the Enlightenment at Longchang, and was the fundamental beginning of the Philosophy of Mind.

Zhu Xi represents the mechanics of arts management; mastering GAAP accounting, understanding contracts, labor agreements, and board governance. You cannot cut the jade without these tools. But Wang Yangming reminds us of the internal understanding that the performing arts are vital to the human experience. If you only study the spreadsheets, you are just staring at the bamboo.

Wang Yangming advocated for the "unity of knowing and acting." For the arts administrator, this is where your passion finds its true definition. Your work is not just executing a set of cold corporate tasks so someone else can make art; the administration itself becomes an active, embodied expression of cultural stewardship. When you balance a budget or negotiate a contract with a deep, internal understanding of why the art matters, you aren't just operating a tool. You are working in harmony with the natural grain of the jade.

So when you ask yourself why you chose a career in this business over pouring lattes or balancing corporate ledgers, the answer shouldn't just be that you "like theater" or "wanted a fun job." The answer lies in recognizing that great administration is an art form of its own; a practice where expertise and internal purpose become one.