• If you want to be an artist, make art.  

This might sound like a no-brainer.. but art takes both hard work and talent to be successful.  Try and do something related to your art every day of your life.

• Get the image of a guy throwing paint at the wall (or girl rolling in paint on the floor) out of your head.

The most successful artists I have ever met are careful, and take great pains to get their work just the way they want it.  Good art and good craft are universally well made... quality workmanship is what you have to cultivate in yourself.  Related to this is good care of your tools and materials.  you cannot make high quality with damaged tools or defective materials.

• Learn from the best teachers you can find, and never stop learning.

There is no better way to become adept at something new than to take instruction from someone who knows how.  The cost and inconvenience of seeking out teachers and working with them will be paid back to you tenfold in time spent and breadth of skill gained.

• Remember that you should periodically assess your view of art and why you make it..

You always need to be able to express your current basis for your work.  Since this may change as you mature, you need to reexamine yourself periodically to understand your own evolution.  If you write your thinking down (say every new year's eve) then in 5 years you will have a record of how your thinking has evolved.  You will see your own growth.

• If you are just starting out, don't pressure yourself to pick your medium or your voice.

Focus first on getting real exposure to a lot of art forms that interest you..  Learn by actually doing them which make you happy and are worth deeper study to you.  As you make different things from different materials, notice what meaning or pleasure or symbolism each  holds for you.  As you identify these, think about the medium you might want and the body of work you might like to create.