My name is Carsten, I recently wrote an article about my experience being a homeless teenager turned wedding photographer, I've since decided to expand on that article and explain the three things that I believe helped me on this journey. At one point in my life I was scavenging fast-food receipts out of the trash and going to the local library to fill out the survey on the back of the receipt in order to redeem my free cookie/taco. At another point I stayed in a $1,000+ a night hotel in Singapore. Needless to say, the journey from fast-food trash surveys to $1,000 a night Singaporean hotel rooms is a long and complicated one. Along that journey I learned a few things that I think were absolutely crucial in my success, and I want to share those with you today in hopes that it will inspire someone else who may find themselves taking a similar path as me.
3 things are responsible for my success as a photographer, and frankly, my success as a human. Those things are:
1. Organization
2. Discovering what luck is
3. Motivation vs Determination
01.
Organization - The Pyramid of Success
I know what you are thinking “Pyramid of Success? What kind of self help BS is this?”. But just hear me out, organization was absolutely critical in my journey up from homelessness, and the way I organized myself was using something called the "Pyramid of Success". Now I don’t remember where I first heard about the Pyramid of Success, but I know for sure I didn't invent it. Whoever came up with it created something magnificent, and I credit a very large portion of my accomplishments on the Pyramid of Success. So, what is it? Well, it is a method to organize your goals in a way that breaks them down into smaller more manageable goals that make up the building blocks to the original goal. So for example, my ultimate goal was to become a successful wedding photographer. That in and of itself is a huge, overwhelming proposition, especially for a homeless teenager. So using the pyramid, I broke that huge goal into its smaller and more manageable sub goals. So things like “Learn how to pose couples”, “Buy a Full Frame Camera”, “Learn about SEO” and so on. So while “Become a Professional Wedding Photographer” sat at the top of the pyramid, all the other small goals made up the layers underneath. The easiest goals go on the bottom row and the goals get increasingly more and more difficult as you make your way up the pyramid. Below is the actual pyramid I made when I was 19 Years old, admittedly some of my original goals were a bit misguided. However you can see that “Become a Successful Wedding Photographer by age 21” sits at the top of the pyramid and everything I thought I needed to do to get there made up the levels underneath. I would wake up everyday and obsess over how I would accomplish one of those blocks. Because I broke it down to such small, achievable sub goals I was less intimidated and was actually able to start making process towards my goal. As I made progress, my motivation sky rocketed as I started to feel like this life was a real possibility for me.
02.
Discovering What Luck is.
How would you define luck? Most people would say something like “An unexpected event that works in your benefit”. While that might be technically correct, defining luck in that way puts it outside of your control. By giving up your control over luck you loose the ability to use it in your favor. “What does that even mean?!?!” you say. Well, what if I told you that you could create your own luck? That you could manufacture luck and use it to your advantage? Sounds great right? and it’s totally possible, It just takes a change of attitude.
Rather than thinking of luck as something out of my control, I think of it as the result of when preparation and opportunity meet. Preparation and Opportunity, in my mind, are both things that are under my control. I know If I make it a point to work relentlessly on my preparation and seeking opportunity, rather than siting around waiting for something to happen, I increase my luck exponentially. For that reason I am constantly preparing myself and constantly seeking opportunities to push my career further. I enter every photography contest that I can, I network as much as possible and I put myself out there in articles, videos, and whatever else I can. I firmly believe All I have to do is seek opportunities and make sure I am prepared when they come along and I will be successful. I believe that to my core and so far that belief has never let me down, However I’ll also be honest in saying that often times my attempts lead to nothing. But I also make it a point to remember that you couldn't possibly win the lottery if you don't buy a ticket and you most certainly can’t have a successful career as a photographer if you don't try.
03.
Inspiration vs Determination
Inspiration is waiting to feel like doing something, while determination is doing something whether you feel like it or not. This is a pretty obvious one, but as obvious as it is, it took me a good 18 years of my life before I figured out the difference. I thought for years that as an artist, the reason I wasn't producing work or accomplishing anything was a lack of inspiration. I would tell myself “How am I supposed to do anything when I don't feel inspired?”. I would surround myself with music, movies, magazines, photography and art in the hopes that I will become so inspired by it that I would start creating amazing work and that would make me successful. But guess what? That inspiration never came, Instead I was procrastinating doing actual work under the guise that I was "trying to find inspiration".
I did eventually become incredibly inspired but only after doing the hard, boring work to get to a point where I was actually profiting from my work. Turns out it is incredibly hard to feel inspired when you are in a perpetual downward spiral of poverty, But once I could make enough money buy food and have a roof over my head I found myself engulfed in inspiration that helped carry me even further. None of that inspiration could have come had I not had the determination to push through the tough times, I remember many, many times I wanted to quit, get a job in contraction and call it a day. I mean who was I fooling thinking I could get myself a middle class white collar lifestyle?, With no Education? No Experience? Not even a high school Diploma? Sometimes you just need the determination and blind faith to push you through those thoughts and keep following your passion. You can't sit and wait to feel inspired, you just have to set a goal and believe in it enough to go for it.
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