The Struggle Is Real - You Win Some, You Learn Some

We all have those moments in our lives…you know the ones where time stands still, the light bulb goes on, clarity appears, or angels sing? Maybe it’s the moment you realize that you’re on the right path, or the wrong path, and your vision clears and you can see, really see, where you’ve been or where you need to go. I’ve had several of those moments on my journey as a photographer and business owner, and many times they’ve led me to a place where I knew I had made a mistake or needed to course correct.I’m so excited to share some of my win some / learn some moments with you in the upcoming series of The Struggle Is Real articles. As I thought about topics for this first article, my first inclination was to share a “win some” moment with you where something amazing happened or was achieved, but I realized that over the course of time, the moments that have been the most impactful and valuable for me were the ones that were the hardest – the “learn some” moments, and that the most valuable education I have received was not from doing things right but from doing them wrong.My path from a shoot and burn mom with a camera to successful boutique business owner hasn’t been perfect, polished or easy. In fact, sometimes it’s been downright ugly, and while it’s my goal in these articles to inspire you and to share information and experiences that will help make your own path to success a little easier, I also want to let you know that it’s okay to make mistakes; it’s okay to fail along the way.I did so many things backwards when I was just starting out. Those win some/learn some moments? I have TONS. The one that I am sharing with you today is probably one of the most humiliating, raw (and ultimately most valuable) moments of my career and it came just as I was feeling pretty darned good about my photography business.I started as a family and child photographer in 2008. I literally jumped in feet first without a thought as to how I was going to actually make it work. I had a camera (Canon Rebel set on “Auto”), a logo (that I made myself), a Blogger blog for a website, Picasa for editing (I hear you laughing!) and a whole lot of passion. What more did I need? My weekends were full of portrait jobs - people wanted me to take pictures of their family, their kids, their pets, and their Grandma’s 80^th birthday party, and I was getting paid for it - $75 for a session and a disc of about 100 images. My photos were being published in the local newspaper and I had even been profiled as a “Reader Gallery All Star Photographer” with a huge, color spread in the Sunday paper (and because I am committed to showing you my warts and all, you can click here to read that article and see some of my early “work”!)  I had finally “arrived”.  It’s good to be queen of your own front porch, yes?During this time of my rise to local stardom (insert sarcasm), I learned that a photographer I admired was moving to my town.  I loved her work.  I was excited to meet her and, not gonna lie, a little afraid that she’d be taking some of my clients. But I reached out to her by email, offered to show her around town, help her with locations, and other things. She was so sweet and so gracious in her reply, and we made arrangements to meet when she got here. But at the end of her message to me, she asked me a question that crushed me. Totally crushed me. She asked me who the “good photographers in Tucson” were, so she could check out their work and see who her competition might be. See where this is going? It wasn’t me. She didn’t see me as “good”.  She didn’t see me as a “real” photographer or as a photographer who produced quality portraits or added value to our local market. And you know what? At that point in time, she was right.  My reality check had just bounced.It’s been years since that moment, when I realized that maybe I still had some work to do, that other photographers didn’t take me seriously or see me as a professional. Years since one person’s words literally changed the course of my life. That photographer?  She has become one of my dearest friends and closest confidants. That “learn some” moment? It led me to look inward and really see my work and my business without the affects of rose colored glasses. It led me to see that “want to” and “good enough” wasn’t enough; that I had made a mistake in how I had gone about becoming a photographer. Did it hurt? You bet. But it also inspired me to learn more and do better. It’s a lesson that has kind of stuck with me all this time: every time I think I’ve “made it” or “done it”,  I’m reminded to stop, look and listen, and to remember that there is always another opinion or perspective to be had and to seek it out. There is always an opportunity to grow, improve or change. That there is nothing to lose by trying again.Have you heard the saying that regression is part of recovery? I think that progress is like that and that the path to success is rarely straight line. I see so many of us give up on our goals when it gets hard, or when our work isn’t received by our peers in the way that we think it should be. We want to give up when our sales average doesn’t seem to be what everyone else is making, or our work isn’t accepted for publication.  I think sometimes we are not fully prepared for the mistakes and failures we’ll face on our way to achieving what we want. But I want to say with 100% certainty that the mistakes we make along the way will help us get to where we want to go, and eventually we’ll have more “win some” moments than “learn some” moments.  Mistakes are inevitable but if we can learn from the current ones, we will also be able to learn from future ones, and no matter when happens tomorrow we’ll be able to get value from it, and apply it to the day after that. And the day after that. And the day after that.Oh, and this is a little scary for me…but I am leaving you with the very first senior portrait I ever shot. Because though we can all probably agree this isn’t my best work, it’s the most important to me. It reminds me of trying and taking risks. Of learning some and winning some, of perseverance, of needing to improve, of growing, of where I’ve been and where I want to go. Of making mistakes and learning from them. I hope you’ll go dig out some of your early work, too, and love it just as much, for the same reasons.xoxox,Stephanie