In a world where everyone is telling you that you need to work hard and be successful, I say “work hard and be a failure”!
Now I’m not saying to go out there and try to fail at what you do. What I am saying however is to accept who you are, which is a human being…and as a human, you are susceptible (and prone) to failing. That’s totally ok! For some reason we put such a negative connotation on failing and too many times when we do fail, we just want to give up ever trying again. Successful people are not measured by how many times they succeed, they are measured by how many times they fail and get back up until they succeed!
I’ve got some news that may shock you; that photographer that you idolize and follow all over social media…the one you wish you could be just like…perhaps the one you’ve paid to see at a conference or attend their workshop…they started out not knowing one lick about photography, lighting, posing, post-processing, or gear. Guess what else! They kept failing at creating successful photographs until they figured out how to do it right (and there are even times where they still fail). But, all too often, no one wants to admit that. It’s like some people expect you to believe they came out of the womb with a camera and flash in their hand and were instilled with the knowledge of “All Things Photography” at birth. C’mon, we know that just isn’t true, but too many times that’s exactly how we look at some people.
Here’s another piece of shocking truth, you will never learn as much from a success as you will from a failure. You see, sometimes success is no more than a happy accident. A series of events comes together in just such a way that it results in a positive manner. We’ve all experienced it…being in the right place at the right time, or an unforeseen change in plans resulting in something good, but unexpected. If we try to use situations like this as building blocks on how to produce successful results, we’ll never be able to recreate them. But all too often, these are the scenarios we try to dissect and analyze to determine how to reproduce the results. The truth is, very little of this provides any real, useful information.
On the other hand, when we fail, we’re able to glean a wealth of information about where things went wrong. Failing not only teaches us what we did wrong, but it gives us insight as to what we would need to do differently in order to succeed. It forces us to evaluate the situation and assess where the points of failure occurred. (Well, if we’re not too busy having a pity party that is.) Really, the one trait that remains the same between success and failure for a successful person is attitude. Being positive and inspired are not traits of success, but are traits of being successful. In failure, we can still be ready and willing to adapt, learn, and overcome. I came up with this little mantra that may be good for you to post where you can read it everyday…“Because of failure I have succeeded or because of failure I am defeated.”
I wish this were an issue that only affected us as photographers, but unfortunately, it’s a life problem. Every area of our life if open to failure. How we respond when failure comes is what determines how we perceive our life. Make no mistake, we WILL fail. When this happens, we can choose to be angry, bitter and defeated or we can choose to be encouraged, hopeful and determined. Which attitude do you think leads to a happier life? Which attitude do you think leads to less failure? Because even though failure will come, when we learn and adapt from it, we find ways to prevent failure in those same areas from reoccurring…and the less we fail, the more we succeed (funny how that works)!
Don’t be afraid to fail. See failure as the growing opportunity it really is, because we will all face it at some point in life. Starting today, make a conscience decision to learn from your mistakes and failures. Then take what you’ve learned and apply it every day to help prevent those same failures from occurring. In this, is the process of success!