We caught up with the brilliant and insightful MaryAnne Long a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi MaryAnne, really happy you were able to join us today and we’re looking forward to sharing your story and insights with our readers. Let’s start with the heart of it all – purpose. How did you find your purpose?
I don’t think I found my purpose. I think it found me. I wasn’t even looking for it.
I was lucky enough to have retired at a very early age and filled my time with volunteer work. I volunteered for things that I knew nothing about, and yet managed to be quite successful in helping the programs I worked with.
For example, I wanted to secure funding for a non-profit entrepreneurial program at a local high school, so I volunteered at a PGA golf tournament because they gave large sums of money to organizations that helped with the tournament. I knew nothing about golf, but was assigned as office manager. I had no job description and there had never been anyone before me, so I figured out what needed to be done and did it for the next 11 years for three different tournaments a year.
I guess that’s when I realized my purpose was to be helpful and make things happen.
Somewhere along the way, I discovered art and became helpful in that arena. I learned to draw and paint and began teaching senior citizen groups. I found that art was not really covered in the locally newspapers so have been writing an art column for a local paper now for the past 8 years. When the pandemic began to ease, I wanted to help get artists back in galleries, so I learned enough about curating to put together many art shows.
So, simply put, my purpose is to find a need and fill it.
Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?
My friends say I morph into different versions of myself. I began my career as a school teacher, then did educational consulting.
After retirement at 45 years old, I worked for more than seven years as an aide to a Honolulu City Councilmember. It was then that I learned about community needs and how to find resources to help people. I learned the skills I needed to write grant proposals which brought hundreds of thousands of dollars into our community.
I helped establish an entrepreneurial program at our local high school and managed that for about six years. We taught students to run the business from concept-to-cash register.
My 11 years as Office Manager-Volunteer Coordinator for the PGA and LPGA golf tournaments in Hawai`i taught me so much about time management, resourcefulness, people skills, etc.,
But, the past 10 years being involved in the art life of Honolulu has been the most rewarding. While I do not get much pleasure or satisfaction from making art, I do relish the opportunity to write about it in my newspaper column; or help new young artists with their first attempts at showing their work in the shows that I curate; or make an artist feel really special when I buy their work for my personal art collection.
I have a life now that I never would have envisioned 30 years ago. I love the dawn of a new day so I can get started making people happy.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
Someone once told me that it is not who you know that gets you ahead; it’s who knows you (and respects and admires what you do).
From that I learned that your reputation is the most important asset you have. Don’t sully it. Don’t take on something that you know you cannot handle. If you do make a mistake, own it and learn from it.
Surround yourself with positive people and those with skills that you lack. Learn from them.
Give people around you a chance to shine. Always recognize the good that others do.
Is there a particular challenge you are currently facing?
My biggest challenge right now is fundraising. I am president of a small non-profit art gallery and black-box theater.
I hate asking for money. I hate holding big galas. Plus, because of the needs on Maui in the aftermath of the wildfires, many non-profits have held back their own fundraising attempts to help Maui non-profits.
Our board of directors meets this month and we need to come up with a plan to raise money. I have a couple weeks to prepare for that meeting. It may be the hardest challenge I have ever faced. But, I have people who believe in me and I know I can count on their help.
Contact Info:
- Website: longlostart.weebly.com
- Instagram: maryanne_artist
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MaryAnneLongHI/
- Linkedin: MaryAnne Long
Image Credits
All images belong to me.
