As someone who has dabbled in art (taking art classes with people who are much better than me), what I get from the article is more an exhortation for people to act more like artists.
The best definition of an artist I've personally heard is that the job of the artist is to make people feel something.
To do something that causes people to feel something. To take risks. To be part of something larger than themselves. Good or bad. Good art challenges you. Bad art bores you. But you can't affect everyone.
As we all know - being a professional artist is very difficult since it is very competitive (and sometimes more about self-marketing than most self-professed artists care to admit). And, for an adult who wants to be an artist later in life - the stakes are so so much higher - peer approval (and rejection) come into play. What would get you on the refrigerator at single-digit ages is irrelevant. Adults have a higher snob level - of what truly is art - usually it has to be good. So many friends of mine - I can't draw etc. (but it really is more that they don't want to struggle)
Maybe, they can be an "artist" in their career. What the author was hinting at. To take more risks, more challenging projects.
Sometimes the "career" they are in is not the right outlet. I've worked with or known many programmers at companies that just do it for a day job (e.g. litmus test - do they program for fun?) - and that is ok - their main focus is their family. But almost always - there is a project/a hobby of varying scope. For example, building your own house, a non-profit to promote ethnic dance, or running a Toastmasters chapter. Or even a hedge funder playing clarinet in the band pit for a friend's little off-off-off-off-off Broadway production (who got more out of that little musical play than earning money ever would).
It comes down to looking at your life as not just what you do - but what you really like to do. And trying to get the two tracks to converge.
Thank you for your response. Being an artist isn't black and white. I wish I could be a better artist or even singer - but really - I am happy with just getting better - without external expectations.