Dear friend,
A secret of entrepreneurial and personal thriving in life: seek to first please yourself, and whenever possible, spurn (scorn/reject) pleasing others.
DOWNLOAD PDF: Spurn pleasing others
ERIC KIM YOUTUBE
On innovation
This is my rationale:
- No matter what you want to do in life, or desire to do, there will always be someone who will be “anti” what you’re passionate about or want to do. For example, I’m sure you remember as a child wanting to do “X” when you grew up, but your parents or someone in your family might have said, “Don’t do that, it isn’t practical.”
- If you’re innovating or doing something totally new, of course you’re going to upset others. Most people are only comfortable with the “status quo” (the boring, predictable, and “safe”). Therefore, realize that if your passion is doing new stuff, or going against the grain, or going against what is commonly accepted in society, you’re always going to upset others.
- If you’re an innovator, you’re creating your own new taste. You’re pioneering a new vision (your own artistic vision). Therefore, to stay motivated, you must ignore the feedback or criticism of others. You must continue to follow your own vision, and spurn pleasing others — because you must strive to please yourself! (The true artist/innovator/entrepreneur is the one who takes a risk in following his/her own unique vision and voice, and realizing that you’re not following a traditional path (thus you will never know whether you will “succeed” or “fail”).
Why do we seek to please others?
The first question:
Why do we seek to please others?
I have several theories/ideas:
- It is part of human DNA to seek approval from others in our tribe or community. Rejection from the tribe meant possible starvation or death.
- If we grew up Christian (or in a western country where Christian morality dominates), our personal ethics is to be “selfless” and to always think about others before ourselves. Therefore according to a Christian morality, the purpose of our lives is to please others (not to please ourselves). For example if you’re atheist (but grew up in America, a Protestant-Puritan society), Christian morality still probably has strong influences on your psyche and thought process on considering selfishness as “evil”.
- We measure entrepreneurial/life success by how much money we make. Therefore, we want to please others, because we think the more we please others, the more money we will earn.
Why spurn pleasing others?
I am Korean-American (born in San Francisco, but raised on Confucian-Korean values, morals, and ethics). I was taught that being selfish was evil.
Also, I was raised Catholic, which of course, meant that if you wanted to be a good person, you had to be selfless like Jesus, and that you needed to sacrifice yourself and your life to help serve/help others.
Now, ultimately I’m all for helping empower others and humanity. But as a prerequisite, I think it’s essential to first empower and help yourself.
In my personal life, I’ve discovered this truth:
Anything I was generally curious or interested in life, other people always were nay-sayers, and told me why I would fail and why I was foolish or dumb.
Making a living from my passion (street photography)
For example, my passion was street photography, and I had a thought: “What if I could make a living from it?” But to everyone I told my dream to — literally 0% of people told me that it was possible to make a living from street photography. People told me why I was impractical, and why I would fail. But 2010-2018 (8 years) I’ve been able to successfully make a living from street photography (via workshops, selling products, commercial work). And I imagine I will be able to make at least another 8 years making a living from street photography.
People told me I would fail because there was no precedent from someone making a living from street photography. Of course, if something hasn’t been done before, it is hard to imagine that it will be possible to do. As humans, we reason via analogy. It is hard for us to reason from “first principles” and to ask ourselves, “Is this physically possible?”
But to be successful in today’s capitalist world, it requires a combination of grit, hustle, ingenuity, innovative thinking, and luck. Luck as manifested as via opportunity, and the conditions of society and the world around you. For example, I’m “lucky” to make a living from street photography, because of the opportunity of being born in a society that has open access to the internet, digital cameras being ubiquitous, and the invention of social media networks (all which helped me). I was also lucky to have been born in America, because English is the language of the internet. If I were born in South Korea, I don’t think I would have been able to successfully monetize my passion in street photography.
What are you capable of?
Anyways what I want to say is this:
If you have a crazy idea, dream, or ambition in life, ignore everyone else, and pursue your own dream with 100% zest, passion, and effort, and spurn pleasing others.
You will never know what you’re capable of until you attempt it!
BE BOLD,
ERIC
Photography Entrepreneurship 101
How to Succeed as an Entrepreneur
- Create Your Own Niche
- How to Gain More Exposure For Your Photography
- Intense Focus
- How to Conquer Your Fears as an Entrepreneur
- Define Yourself
- Let Dissatisfaction Drive You Forward!
- It Doesn’t Matter if Someone Else Has Done it Before!
- How to Succeed as a Photography Entrepreneur: Be Extremely Resourceful
- Open Source Business Model in Photography Entrepreneurship
- Entrepreneurship 101: Growth and Innovation Over Self-Preservation
- How to Create Value as a Photography Entrepreneur
- Why Become a Photography Entrepreneur?
- Why You Must Ignore Nay-Sayers to Succeed in Entrepreneurship, Business, and Life
The Modern Photographer: Tips, Strategies, and Tactics to Thrive as a Visual Artist in the Digital Age
Marketing, Branding, Entrepreneurship Principles For Success
MODERN PHOTOGRAPHER is your new philosophical and practical primer to succeed as a modern photographer in today’s digital world.
##
- How to Succeed as a Photography Entrepreneur: Be Extremely Resourceful
- Open Source Business Model in Photography Entrepreneurship
- Entrepreneurship 101: Growth and Innovation Over Self-Preservation
How to Monetize Your Photography
- Photography Entrepreneurship 101: INFLUENCE
- Should I Monetize My Passion for Photography?
- 10 Practical Photography Monetization Strategies: Pricing, Google SEO, & Entrepreneurship
- How to Make Money From Street Photography
Why Become a Photography Entrepreneur?
Take control of your own photographic destiny:
THE MODERN PHOTOGRAPHER
- CREATIVE CAPITALISM
- How to Monetize Your Photography
- 5 Practical Photography Career Tips and Advice
- 10x Thinking
- How to Hustle as a Photographer
- How to Become Your Own Master Marketer
- The ‘T’ Technique of Success
- Go Ahead and Sell Out
- What is Your Unique Voice?
- Why You Must Self-Promote Yourself
- What is Your Unique Angle as a Photographer?
- Photography Content Marketing 101
- Why You Must Become Your Own Publisher
- The Art of Cross-Pollination in Photography
Photography Entrepreneurship Articles
- Why You Shouldn’t Trust Your Pictures to Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and Flickr
- How to Make Money From Your Photography
- Photography SEO and Blogging: How to Become Number One on Google
- Intrinsic vs Extrinsic Motivation
- Now is the Best Time to Be a Photographer
- PRODUCERISM
- What Is The Value of a Picture?
- Your Photographic Labor is Not Free
PHOTOGRAPHY WORKSHOPS 101
- Chapter 1. How to Make a Photography Blog
- Chapter 2. How to Price Yourself
- Chapter 3. How to Find Your Market
- Chapter 4. Why Teach Workshops?
- Chapter 5. How to Build Trust
- Chapter 6. How to Market Yourself
- Chapter 7: Why Should Someone Attend Your Workshop?
KEYS TO SUCCESS
- Why You Must Be a “Personality” in Order to Succeed
- THRIVE OR DIE.
- Impatience is a Virtue
- Create Your Own Category
- HOW TO DREAM BIG.
- Will Not or Cannot?
- Why Not?
- How to Think BIG
- 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 Have More Followers?
- 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