Believe in yourself.

PhotoFocus recently posted an article on their blog titled “Trying To Get A Job As A Photographer? Believe In Yourself”.  I re-blogged the article below, but the original is here, and there’s MUCH MORE goodness on their site.  You should definitely check them out.

If you’re trying to get a job as a photographer, you need to be confident. You need to make your prospective clients feel at ease with their choice of you as a photographer. You simply can’t do this if you cave into advice of your fears, the trolls or the haters.

I’ve written about this many times. It’s okay if not everyone likes you. If you are yourself, and you shoot from the heart you will absolutely find clients who WANT to believe in you. Your decision to believe in yourself and to be confident is the basic starting point. Sure – your style may not be for everyone, but find the people who DO like it and you’ll have all the clients you need. Those who do enjoy what you do and who can count on you to deliver more of the same will come back for more.

Don’t bend with the wind. That shows a lack of confidence. You simply cannot please everyone. In fact, in today’s self-entitled, everyone gets a plaque culture, it’s often hard to please anyone. So don’t worry about it. Just be authentic. Don’t listen to the pedants and the complainers. They’ll just bring you down. They failed and want you to as well. It makes their own failure easier to deal with. But you shouldn’t listen to anything but your own heart. If you want to help people keep, protect and share their memories, and deep down it’s something you love doing, you will succeed. Period.

You have to go for it. You have to be bold, brave, proud and confident. You have to try. Stop looking for excuses. Let the chips fall where they may. There will be people who claim you are “arrogant.” That’s because they themselves don’t have the courage to stand up for what they really believe. Ignore them. Doing what you think is right and what you believe in isn’t arrogant. It’s authentic. Be you. Share from your heart. That’s always the right thing to do in any arena.

I’ll close from a quote by funny man Bill Cosby. “I don’t know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody.”

Move forward and move beyond those who would chip away at your confidence. Stick to your own vision. Stick to your guns. Stand up and be counted. Hold your mud. Your work will improve, you’ll attract better clients and you’ll be happier.

 

(again, please see the original post here)

Tagged: aepoc, believe, believe in yourself, confidence, job, photofocus, photography