HOW TO THINK BIG.

One key to success: THINK BIG.

Part of Photography Entrepeneurship 101 by ERIC KIM

Download PDF >

Do you like thinking small?

Consider the opposite:

Nobody who has dreamed small has made it big.

Anti-success: thinking small.

Opposite: THINK BIG.

Thank you umma.

Kanye West once said,

A genius is just a kid with good parents.

I’m grateful, my UMMA (mom) always believed in me. She told me that I could be anyone. I could win. She told me,

If you work hard enough, you can achieve anything.

I’m aware not everyone was given this privilege. Also, another privilege: growing up in America taught me the cultural tool and power:

Be an individual. Hustle hard, and you can achieve the AMERICAN DREAM.

I was built with infinite optimism, even though my dad was gambling away the rent money.

I truly believed in the AMERICAN DREAM; to hustle hard and scheme, to silence innner-doubt, no screams. I believed in me, thank you to mom and my supportive community.

HOW TO CREATE YOUR OWN FUTURE

I know not everyone was blessed like me.

A lot of folks are born without nobody believing in them, their dreams, their hopes, and their ambitions.

Some suggestions:

  1. Ruthlessly prune negative people from your life: You don’t have the control who your family is, but you can choose whether to keep them in your life or not. Prime example: my Dad was a leech and just negative vibes. I knew for my personal mental health and the future health of Cindy and my future kids, I had to ruthlessly nip the bud. I blocked his emails, phone number, and any forms of contact. The sad truth, “The wound has healed, but the scar still remains.”
  2. Fuck the haters: Haters are gonna hate, because they don’t believe in themselves, and cannot relate to you. But disregard and ignore the haters; they ain’t your family or related to you. Not only that, but don’t forget, they are the same hue as you – they have the same dreams and hopes that you do, and the same regrets, pains, and fears as you. So if haters hate on you, just ignore them. You show more magnanimity by ignoring the gadflies than acknowledging their presence. Like Big Sean says, subtract your “Zenemies”– subtract the negative energy.
  3. Create your own culture: You didn’t choose to be born. You didn’t choose where to be born. You didn’t choose your culture, you just grew up in it. My suggestion: make your own culture and your own inner-society. Study philosophy that speaks to you (for me, that is Stoicism and Zen), listen to music that empowers you (that is Kanye, Jay Z, Kendrick Lamar to me), and consume art which stirs your heart (for me, this is Basquiat, Issey Miyake, Warhol).
  4. Create your own future: The best way to predict the future is to invent it, as Alan Kay said. You can only make a positive change in your life if you make change. By building shit, or doing shit. If you want to make more money, you must self-promote yourself, build a website and advertise your services, and charge money. If you want to improve your photography, you gotta study the masters of photography and actually go out and make more photos.
  5. The only way to success: MASSIVE ACTION. Imagine yourself like Thor with your hammer. Make earthquakes, by pounding the pavement, and creating fissures in the earth. Fuck playing video games, create ripples on (real) Earth.

Believe in YOU

Being “right” or “wrong” in life is just interpretation.

You can turn every “mistake” in your life as a positive lesson.

For example, I lost $3,000 in college at age 20 by gambling in penny stocks. My lesson: don’t fuck around with speculative “investing”. Now, I only trust cold hard cash.

Another mistake: listening to haters. Lesson: ignore haters, just “do me” and relentlessly focus on my own gut and vision.

I have removed the word “wrong” or “mistake” from my vocabulary. The new word is: “feedback” and “information”.

If you just see every step in life’s journey, you will never lose.

And always ask yourself:

How can I turn this negative happening in my life into a positive?

BE STRONG,
ERIC

Photography Entrepeneurship 101 by ERIC KIM

ERIC KIM x HENRI NECK STRAP  by HAPTIC INDUSTRIES // Portrait by Benjamin Thompson

If you want to make a living (or a killing) from photography, download:

PHOTOGRAPHY ENTREPRENEURSHIP MANUAL by ERIC KIM

KEYS TO SUCCESS

Table of Contents

Learn how to make a living from your passion:

Photography Business 101

How to Make Money with Photography

Photography Marketing 101

SELLOUT ERIC KIM

How to Hustle.

Entrepreneurial Principles

How to be a Full-time Photographer

Photography Blogging

How to Teach Photography

Social Media

How to Save Money

START HERE >

More posts