I don’t think of Damien Hirst as an artist, I tend to think of him as a successful commodity broker. One who has made money out of selling ideas.

The question of whether Hirst is an artist or not, is irrelevant. The question should be is he any good at what he does? Yes, Hirst is very good at what he does. One can see this from the amount of money he has made. In 2010, Hirst’s estimated net worth was over $300m.

Hirst’s financial success is the only way we can judge Damien Hirst the artist in terms of his career. He has rarely produced anything of much originality, for example his “Spin” paintings lifted directly from ideas contained in the 60’s children’s toy Spiro-Matic, while his sculpture Hymn breached copyright of Humbrol’s Young Scientist Anatomy Set, and led to an out-of-court settlement.

While one of his most recent works, For the Love of God, raised similar controversies. The work also suggested Hirst believes longevity in art can only be achieved by making something that is financially valuable - in this case a skull encrusted with $40m’s worth of diamonds, which was sold for $50m. Diamonds, it seems, are forever.

The following documentary, Damien Hirst: Thoughts, Work, Life is:

...an intimate and revealing portrait, Damien Hirst talks openly and honestly about his life. From his early years growing up in Leeds and his move to London in the early 80s, to his time spent at Goldsmiths College where he curated the now infamous Freeze show that brought the Young British Artists together. And, of course, his meteoric rise to fame in the 90s. The film includes never-before-seen footage, largely collated from the artist’s own archives, and shows a private side of the artist rarely seen by the public.

In interview Hirst generally comes across as a likable, chummy bloke, who seems rather ordinary. What makes him different is that Damien Hirst has had the self-belief and ambition to put his ideas into reality. And this has made him very successful.