To me, the role of a contemporary gallerist is to make work possible. We have a part in everything from spotting it to promoting it, and it can be as risky as actually being an artist yourself.

When I started my gallery in the East End in 1984, everyone told me it couldn't survive. I had trained as an artist at the Royal College of Art, but after graduating I realised that I had far more interest in exploring other people's work than making my own.

Looking back, what I think made me stand out was that I wasn't just exhibiting my friends from around London or fellow students. I wanted to show artists from abroad and put them together with artists working here.

People really responded to what I did, and I was able, with a certain amount of luck, to ask all kinds of artists to do projects with me. I was able to bring over major artists such as Charles Ray and Fischli & Weiss.

I can often tell a really important work in five or ten seconds. So what do I look for? It is the equivalent of the “voice” of a good writer. It is something fresh, something that surprises or challenges me. When you think you understand things, and someone changes the way you see it, it is incredibly exciting. Gillian Wearing's work has always shocked and intrigued me. Wolfgang Tillmans's work has created a new way for me to see. All my artists teach me something through their vision, and I learn from that.

I am quite a workaholic. I work 24/7, and I never stop thinking about the gallery. It's my passion, but it is not easy. Artists require a great deal of tender care to produce things, so I am often midwifing things into being.

Pursue showing art if it is something you truly understand. Being a gallerist is part business and part magic, and, much like a great artist, you have to have that something. But a grasp of art history is important, too. You need an understanding of what contemporary art contributes based on the past, as well as what is unique to our moment in time, and so studying art or art history is a great advantage. Look at many exhibitions, here and abroad, in all manner of places and spaces, and take notice of how art is installed in the galleries that you admire.

If you really want to do it you must hold your nerve and believe in your own vision. Having absolute belief and enthusiasm in what you do, and having true devotion to art, is what will help to make you endure.

MAUREEN PALEY

Director of Maureen Paley gallery, London E2. As told to Louise Cohen

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