We were lucky to catch up with Matt Chessco recently and have shared our conversation below.

Matt, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.

I quit my engineering career 4 days after getting my first job.

In the summer of 2018, I finished my Mechanical Engineering degree. I got my last exam on a Saturday and I started working the next Monday.

I had a really interesting job. I was working for a company that was making over a million dollars in revenues per year with just 4 employees. I was the right arm of the CEO on day one. All my friends were a little jealous of my position.

Every hour I was working there, I would stop myself and wonder “What am I doing here?”. After 4 days, I came back to place and I listed the pros and cons of keeping my job. In the pros section, the only thing that I wrote was that I was making money. It was pretty clear for me that I had to quit.

The next day, I went to the office, I learned how to use the printer and I printed my resignation letter. My boss came in at around 10 am and I told him I was quitting engineering for good. He probably thought I was crazy because I had just studied for 5 years to become an engineer. He asked me what I was going to do next week. I had no idea, but I wanted to give him an answer, so I told him the first thing that came to my mind. I said: “You know what, I’m gonna become an artist”. At this moment, he probably thought I was even crazier. A few minutes later, I was gone.

At the time, I was doing abstract paintings in my free time for fun, but my paintings were ugly and nobody around me knew I was painting. In the weeks and months that followed, I started painting whenever I could while I was building websites and creating logos to make an income.

A year and a half later, I became a full-time artist.

Quitting my engineering job after four days was the riskiest and boldest thing I ever did in my life. But it turned out to also be the best decision I ever took! Nowadays, I spend all my time doing things I love and I enjoy every second of it!

Matt, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

What do you do?

I’m known for my entertaining painting videos. There are thousands of artists who post their stuff online, but no one does it like me. In my videos, I wave my paintbrush over the canvas to the beat of sounds and paint magically appears on the canvas.

In November 2019, I made a painting I was proud of for the first time. I was looking for an innovative way to promote it online. I wanted to do something different that would set me apart. One day, I woke up and got this idea of hitting the canvas to the beat of sounds while the painting comes to life. In the 2 weeks that followed, I worked on the logistics of my idea, I created my first video ever and I decided to post it online. At the time, I only had about 200 followers on Instagram. They were mainly my friends and family. I posted my first video on my page and people went crazy. Dozens of people I knew reached out to me to say they absolutely loved my video. One girl I didn’t know reposted my video in her Instagram story and wrote something along the lines of “Wow this is so good and original! I watched this video 20 times”. At this very moment, I knew I had a good concept and I had to go all in with it. In the months that followed, I started posting 1 or 2 videos per week. Within 6 months, I went from zero to over 500,000 followers across all platforms.

What are you most proud of?

I’m really proud of my Marilyn Monroe painting. It’s the first large painting I ever did and it’s also the first super viral video I ever posted. I used a song titled “Crazy Train by Snubby J” and my video went absolutely viral! Today, it has over 150 million views across all my socials and it’s my best seller in terms of print.

What is your goal with your art?

With my art, I hope to inspire as many people as possible to go after their dreams! I used to work as an engineer and I hated it! I did something about it and things turned out for the best for me. If I can do it, you can do it too! The worst thing that can happen is you’ll fail and you’ll go back to your previous life. I hope my story can resonate with other people and push them to follow their passions!

Can you share your view on NFTs? (Note: this is for education/entertainment purposes only, readers should not construe this as advice)

I believe art NFTs will become a market worth hundreds of billions of dollars in about 10 years from now. Cryptocurrencies are here to stay. And since NFTs live on the blockchain, they are here to stay as well! Most people hate NFTs because they don’t understand the technology behind it, but it’s really simple to understand. Just ask ChatGPT and it will explain it to you like you’re five. I believe artists who make NFTs right now will become superstars of the future! When new technologies or tools emerge, the first people to use them become the reference, the ones we look up to. Think of the most famous pianists of all time. Even though the piano has been around since the year 1700, we only praise the first talented people who mastered it. I believe the same phenomenon will happen with NFTs, especially art NFTs.

Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?

I love reading self-help books! I believe a big part of my success can be attributed to lessons I learned from books. Being an artist is like managing a business. You have to do your own marketing, maintain relationships with partners, deal with deadlines, do your own accounting, manage sales, and so on. I believe the most successful artists are not the most talented ones, but the ones who understand business the most. If I had to recommend only one book, it would be “Good To Great” by Jim Collins. This book will teach you how to understand your art passion, identify your artistic strengths, and find ways to monetize your work.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://mattchessco.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mattchessco/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mattchessco/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattchessco/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/mattchessco
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvRqwnZA10mwBLNKuBlJnBw
• Other: TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@mattchessco