How Being an Outsider Helps You Disrupt Industries

It’s hard to disrupt the industry that pays your bills. People are taught a way of doing things, and companies pride themselves on their systems and processes, all codified in lengthy and monolithic manuals. “Reputation” and “experience” allow certain businesses to charge insanely high fees or prices, even if their services or products are subpar and don’t fully satisfy their customers' needs.

I’m a Latinx immigrant who has called the United States home for more than 20 years. Even as a naturalized American citizen, being an immigrant will forever render me an outsider. But that has also been my greatest advantage.

I entered the art world only 12 years ago as an interloper. When I opened my art advisory and consulting company, I had been practicing law in a big New York firm for several years. I was miserable doing something I never enjoyed, and in 2009, after plotting an exit for a few months, I left to open my own business with no formal education, background or experience in the arts. Being outside of the industry's inner circle ended up propelling me to success, and here are three advantages I've found along the way:

I decided to go with my gut and was informed by passion. As a lawyer, I had started collecting emerging artists, visiting galleries and attending art fairs in my very limited spare time. Meanwhile, my novice eyes noticed how opaque and impenetrable the art world could be. Other advisors seemed to have no excitement and were only interested in the transaction. Blogging, expanding their knowledge on social media or branching out to different areas and projects that diversified revenues and kept their businesses relevant wasn’t being done. They saw other ventures as a waste of their time — time that should instead be spent selling.

This odd behavior struck me as an opportunity, and while putting together a business plan , I drafted a mission statement that is still valid today: to open a company that bridged the gap between collectors and artists and demystified the art world. I wanted to help my clients understand and live with contemporary art, use all forms of social media to educate and enlighten my audience (Back then only Facebook and Twitter were somewhat widely used, video wasn’t prevailing and Instagram didn’t exist), and never stay complacent or afraid of exploring different areas of an industry that today has become a $50 billion global market .