Codie SanchezFounder @ Contrarian Thinking

A $100,000 Napkin?!

14 Apr 2025 · 1 min

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Codie Sanchez tells the story of Picasso charging $100,000 for a napkin sketch. When the woman complained it took seconds, he said it took decades. The point: mastery is built through years of repeated practice, so expert work looks effortless.

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Have you ever heard the story of Pablo Picasso and the napkin? So a woman comes up to Pablo Picasso at a bar. He says, I love your work. It's so amazing. Could you draw me something on a napkin? He grabs a napkin, sketches out a little figure, and hands it back to the woman and says, that'll be $100,000. And the woman gets angry. She's like, that took you 30 seconds to draw. Why would this be $100,000? And he responds, no, that took me decades. The moral of the story is, you'll have to do it for longer than you think. But expertise compounds, and the best way to become an expert at anything? Do it so many times. When you finally do it towards the end, those decades turn into minutes.