Zenologue

As mentioned in a previous post, fear (in its many forms) is probably the number one thing holding many of us photographers back from success in their business. Few people are completely immune to its effects, but there are ways to combat it and keep our fears in perspective 

Think about your favorite successful entrepreneur for a moment. Mine happens to be Sir Richard Branson, but you can pick whomever you like. Imagine them facing the challenges they’ve had to overcome in order to be successful…

Now, do you think that person has ever experienced feelings of fear in their business ventures?

Of course they have.

The difference between the successful business people and the failures lies in how they respond to what happens to them and how they deal with those things that cause them fear.

For most of us, fear connected with our business comes from insecurity or lack of confidence in our ability to succeed.  It manifests itself as indecisiveness and procrastination, or the tackling of tasks half-heartedly. We may even put off trying something completely, finding one excuse after another not to face the possibility of failure through simple fear alone.

I believe the secret to fighting this insidious enemy of our success is to firstly acknowledge that we are experiencing fear and then to examine it for rationality. How much risk is there really? What are the chances of us appearing foolish? What are the rewards for success? Where can we draw more confidence to try?

Assuming that we want to press forward with whatever it is we’re going to try to do, we can break it down into manageable chunks; slice it and dice it into pieces so small that each one is nothing more than a simple step. Yet each of those steps brings us closer to achieving our goals. Furthermore, with each step we take, our success looks brighter and fear shrinks further back until in the end it’s gone completely.

I am sure that Sir Richard Branson, and others like him, have all faced significant fears in the pursuit of their endeavors. However, they have all faced those fears head on and taken on the challenges to become the successes we know today.

Motivation business, encouragement, professional photographer, professional photography, success

The biggest enemy you face in achieving the success you deserve in your photography businesses is “Fear”.

It comes in many guises and can strike even the most experienced, and it can be so powerful that it can mean the difference between life and death for our business:

• Fear of losing clients because our prices are too high…
• Fear of creating inferior work…
• Fear of facing client objections or complaints…
• Fear of an idea that seems good but may not work…
• Fear of appearing foolish …
• Fear of closing the sale…
• Fear of dealing with people…
• Fear of dealing with children…
• Fear of messing up someone’s wedding…
• Fear of setting goals that we might not achieve…
• Fear of a failed marketing campaign…

The list is endless…

For example, experts might tell us that our prices are too low and that we should raise them. It sounds like good advice (which it more than likely is) but the voice of fear pops into our minds with doubts like “What if I can’t get any new clients? What if my existing clients complain? What if no one buys anything? What if I can’t compete in the market?”

Such reactions and thoughts are a natural response to change, but we must overcome them if we are to succeed. As we start off this new year, there’s much talk of setting goals and objectives for the future – but we need to be mindful and not allow fear to creep in the back door and undermine what we set out to achieve.

Don’t allow your goals to be slowly eroded away to nothing, like most people’s New Year’s resolutions seem to, by falling prey to the little voice of fear.

It is entirely possible to be bold and adventurous without being reckless, and fear cannot easily take hold of a mind that knows that it’s in control.

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How do we measure success? As far as I know there’s no ruler or gauge that we can use to measure it. Do we wake up one day and suddenly find ourselves successful?

Are there varying degrees of success? If so, where’s the point at which a higher degree of failure becomes a lesser degree of success?

Perhaps this is a “half-full” versus “half-empty” type of question.

Some people might measure their success by the amount of money in the bank, others by the achievement of awards or the attainment of goals. Others count themselves successful if they’re living life on their own terms. Is being successful the same as being happy or content?

In 1969, NASA launched Apollo 11 on a successful mission to the moon. There was no possibility of partial success in that case, only absolute success or failure. Making it halfway to the moon did not constitute a quarter-successful mission. Neither did landing on the moon itself, although that was certainly a major milestone. Success only came when Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins made that wonderful splash in the ocean upon their safe return.

President Kennedy defined the terms of the mission’s success in his own seemingly prophetic words in 1961: “…I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the Earth.”

The Apollo mission could only be said to be a success when the goals had been met.

Perhaps we can learn something from this as professional photographers in our own business if we consider the following question:

How can we hope to be successful if we do not define the goals and objectives we need to meet?

What goals are you going to set for yourself and your business? Now, at the beginning of a new decade, a new year, what will define your success? The answers to these questions could reveal the uniqueness of you and your specific business; that same uniqueness that separates you from the other photographers in your area.

Are you ready to launch your own Apollo program with its own goals and commitments?

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