Dear friend,

I’m quite convinced: one of the keys to “true” happiness in joy in life is to be self-employed; to NOT have a boss– to work for yourself, according to your own schedule; to essentially create your own business and job for yourself. #entrepreneurship

I got this inspiration from Weegee, who made his own job, documenting news reports over the city, and sold his photos to newspapers. He became a “freelance” photographer. This was good for him, because he was able to live his (strange) lifestyle, while making a living!

Now I don’t think the point of being self-employed is to maximize your income. The point is to maximize your free time, to pursue only things which artistically, creatively, or philosophically interest you.

In other words,

It’s better to earn $30,000 a year as a self-employed person and have 100% freedom over your life, than to earn $3 million dollars a year, yet have only 5% freedom in your everyday life.

So I can only speak from my experience as a photography entrepreneur. I’ve made a good living for myself through photography, blogging, teaching, etc.

In today’s brave new world of photography, there are INFINITE possibilities for you to make a living from photography. There are no more traditional paths; all future employment for photographers is going to be unorthodox. For example, you’re going to need to know:

How to shoot videos and edit videos
How to blog, build websites, and maintain your own website hosting
How to brand, market, and sell yourself
Teaching, education, and sharing your skills and ideas with others
A “barbell” between free products and services, and very expensive products and services.

You can make your own job

Consider, you can make your own job for yourself –create your own category (zero to one, like Peter Thiel). Just because something didn’t exist before, or hasn’t been imagined before– doesn’t mean it can’t exist.

For example in 2010 when I started this blog, the concept of making a living through street photography didn’t exist. I was one of the first to make a living through street photography — by teaching workshops, selling products, etc.

Steve Jobs espresso cup

If your ideal job doesn’t exist; don’t settle #stevejobs. Put on your own “reality distortion field” (Walter Isaacson biography of Steve Jobs) and make this ideal job for yourself!

Settling sucks.

You’re gonna die anyways. Why live a life without risks, chances, and uncertainty? Isn’t life more fun pursuing things which interest you — even though you might fail?

BE BRAZEN,

ERIC