One key to success: THINK BIG.
Part of Photography Entrepeneurship 101 by ERIC KIM
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:
- 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.”
- 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.
- 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).
- 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.
- 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
If you want to make a living (or a killing) from photography, download:
KEYS TO SUCCESS
- How to Stay Ahead of the Curve
- How to Invest in Yourself
- The Two Camera Rule
- MEANINGFUL DIFFERENTIATION
- Advice For College Students
- How to Thrive in Uncertain Times
- CANNIBALIZE YOURSELF.
- DO AND GROW RICH
- Does Fear of Punishment Hold You Back?
- HOW TO GET MORE FOLLOWERS
- How to Innovate
- How to Build Your Own Empire
- YOU ARE ENTITLED TO HARD WORK.
- PICK YOURSELF.
- OWN YOUR PLATFORM
- 10 KEYS TO SUCCESS
Table of Contents
Learn how to make a living from your passion:
- Preface. BRAVE NEW WORLD OF PHOTOGRAPHY
- Chapter 1. How to Create Value
- Chapter 2. ZEN CAPITALISM
- Chapter 3. Scarcity
- Chapter 4. How to Brand Yourself
- Chapter 5. How to Build a True Following
- Chapter 6. The Blueprint to Success in Photography
- Chapter 7. HOW TO BE BOLD
- Chapter 8. How to Sell Out
- Chapter 9. GO AGAINST THE GRAIN
- Chapter 10. EXTREME ABUNDANCE
- Chapter 11. Photography Experience Economy
- Chapter 12. Why You Should Make Money for Your Photography
- Chapter 13. How to Become a Famous Photographer
Photography Business 101
How to Make Money with Photography
- How to Charge More Money in Your Photography
- Why You Should Not Pursue Photography as Career
- Can Photography Make You Rich?
- How I Earn $200,000+ a Year From Photography
- How to earn $10,000 a month as a photographer
- Why you must be an expensive photographer
Photography Marketing 101
- Why You Should Do Photography Work For Free
- How I Became an Internet Famous Photographer
- Photography Blogging Ideas
- Why You Should Promote Your Own Name
- How to Build a Following
- How to Stand Out as a Photographer.
- HOW TO GO VIRAL AS A PHOTOGRAPHER.
- How to Master Marketing
- How to Sell Yourself
How to Hustle.
- Entrepreneurial Advice to My 18 Year Old Self
- How to Become Insanely Productive.
- 5 Lessons From Hesiod on Hustling
Entrepreneurial Principles
- It is Better to Beg For Forgiveness Than Ask For Permission
- The Free Way to Become Rich
- JUST DO IT.
- 7 Steps: How to Make a Living From Your Passion
- How to Do What You Love for a Living
- How to Create an MVP (Minimum Viable Product)
- How to Fail Big
- How to Invest in Yourself
- How to Be Bold in Photography and Life
- Mission: Cover Your Rent and Food
- 1,000 True Fans
- The “10x Principle”: The Only Difference Between “Success” and “Failure”
- Make More Value Not Money
- We Live in a Photo Utopia
How to be a Full-time Photographer
- How to Make a Living From Photography
- The 3 Principles of Making Money With Photography
- Advice for Aspiring Full-Time Photographers
- Don’t Go Into Debt For Your Photography
- How to Brand Yourself as a Photographer
- Trust: The Most Important Thing You Need to Succeed as a Photographer
Photography Blogging
- How to become rich from photography blogging
- How to Make a Living with Blogging
- 50 Blogging Tips For Beginners
- How to Start Your Own Photography Blog
- A Photographer’s Guide to SEO, Blogging, and Social Media
How to Teach Photography
- How to Become a Photography Teacher
- How to Teach a Street Photography Class
- Why I Teach Street Photography Workshops
Social Media
- Why I Deleted My Instagram
- The Social Media Blackbook for Photographers
- Why Do You Need More Likes or Followers?
- Instagram is Going to Be the Next Facebook
- Don’t Trust “Free” Photography Social Networks
