The Harder I Work, The Luckier I am
2008 is off to a great start. I have been really been concentrating on balancing life and work. The days are long as I have been getting up very early, around 5am. I work until 10pm. Well, sort of... I make time to go to the gym, play with the dog, snuggle with my wife, and read. But, I feel in balance having these long days, and it is a great feeling.
I am so excited about the projects we are working on that I just don't feel tired. I love working. I was re-listening to a Trump audio book recently and the book quoted pro golfer Gary Player. He once said "The harder I work, the luckier I am." What a remarkable quote! I do believe that some people just have great luck. But, I also think that if you work with passion at being the best you can be then luck finds it's way to you. Loving what you do for a living is no doubt a gift. It isn't always easy, but a gift non the less.
Recently, a fellow photographer jokingly said to me "I wasn't lucky enough to grow up in the business like you did". It's true, I was lucky that my father was a photo enthusiast. I grew up with a darkroom at home and watched him develop pictures from the time I was 8 years old. I am lucky that I had that experience, as it has added 10 years to my knowledge as a photographer. Just thinking about it, I can actually smell the chemistry in the air and hear the radio playing. We would develop photographs all hours of the night, and it is one of my fondest memories growing up.
But I just had to tell him about how, when I first started, I had nothing. I would pull a hidden mattress out from behind a wall to sleep on at my first studio. I would clean a restaurant from midnight till 4am. Then go to the studio, sleep for a few hours and work hard to get the phone to ring. I worked hard, and with passion to succeed. It took me 15 years, 25 years if you consider the time with my father, to get to the level of photographic integrity we have today. There is no doubt, I consider myself the luckiest person alive. But, the truth is, just like the Gary Player quote, The harder I work, the luckier I am.
I am so excited about the projects we are working on that I just don't feel tired. I love working. I was re-listening to a Trump audio book recently and the book quoted pro golfer Gary Player. He once said "The harder I work, the luckier I am." What a remarkable quote! I do believe that some people just have great luck. But, I also think that if you work with passion at being the best you can be then luck finds it's way to you. Loving what you do for a living is no doubt a gift. It isn't always easy, but a gift non the less.
Recently, a fellow photographer jokingly said to me "I wasn't lucky enough to grow up in the business like you did". It's true, I was lucky that my father was a photo enthusiast. I grew up with a darkroom at home and watched him develop pictures from the time I was 8 years old. I am lucky that I had that experience, as it has added 10 years to my knowledge as a photographer. Just thinking about it, I can actually smell the chemistry in the air and hear the radio playing. We would develop photographs all hours of the night, and it is one of my fondest memories growing up.
But I just had to tell him about how, when I first started, I had nothing. I would pull a hidden mattress out from behind a wall to sleep on at my first studio. I would clean a restaurant from midnight till 4am. Then go to the studio, sleep for a few hours and work hard to get the phone to ring. I worked hard, and with passion to succeed. It took me 15 years, 25 years if you consider the time with my father, to get to the level of photographic integrity we have today. There is no doubt, I consider myself the luckiest person alive. But, the truth is, just like the Gary Player quote, The harder I work, the luckier I am.
posted by Charles | 6:02 AM
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