I've never read Rand, but that was pretty good.
I do a lot of different things that could be considered art, but don't think of myself as an artist. For me it has to have an element of inspiration to qualify. For instance, if I'm carving something from wood the project will often morph because it seemed to need to do so somewhere along the way. Only then, does it feel like art to me. It's hard to explain. I'm a fan of a book called "The Artist's Way" which is big on techniques to wake up subconscious ideas and help them to bubble to the surface. More or less.
I sell some stuff, but I don't really try to make money at it. People ask me to do custom stuff, and I usually say OK, but it's more or less just to see if I can. Most often the product exceeds the customer's original concept, which I like. I doubt I'll ever be happy by cranking out a routine piece of shit and then sticking my hand out. On some level its a way of making somebody happy, including myself.
I did a sign for a restaurant that just opened because the owner is my wife's cousin and she had asked me. And I like her. She has a creative brain. I didn't know if I could really do what she wanted, but I took a chunk of wood from the demolition on the space and turned it into a pretty nice sign. She cried when she saw it, which was cool. It was her vision, but she needed me to manifest it and I was happy when it was complete. Bottom line is that I like it when somebody challenges me and I learn something new. Repetition is the key to efficiency, but it doesn't do much for the soul.
My process is to jump off a cliff and just before I slam into the ground I manage to figure it out.