Being a Park City Photographer :: My Philosophy

80 percent of success is showing up.

Woody Allen

I will quote and re-quote and re-re-quote the statement above until I’m blue in the face.  It’s my life’s motto.

I’ve been *high-achieving* (I mean, relatively speaking; I’m not that big a deal) most of my life, but not due to any particular talent, skill, or luck.  Well, sometimes a few of those elements collaborate and I’m on my merry way to success.  But, mostly, I’ve shown up.  I can’t tell you the number of positions I’ve held, opportunities I’ve experienced, and people I’ve known simply because I put in a little effort.  Fo’ rills.

My other favorite quote is, “you can’t always get what you want, but if you try sometimes you might find you get what you need” [courtesy of the glorious Rolling Stones].”  Most people walk away from that statement believing that maybe you don’t get the ideal things in life but you usually end up with the satisfactory stuff.  To me, the key element of that quote is “…if you try sometimes…”.  There should be an asterisk by that phrase ‘cuz it’s the most important part of the sentence.  Put in a little effort and it’s remarkable what can happen.

Moving to Park City and establishing my own business was hard.  Like, really crazy insanely hard.  I wrote about ‘finding myself’ in this post, which is one of my favorite things I’ve ever written.  But, more than any other single piece of advice I can give, my top suggestion is: show up.  Live how you SAY you’re gonna live.  Be accountable to yourself.  And try.  Fearlessly.  Okay, you can feel afraid, but you can’t acknowledge it or give it any attention — that’ll just cause it to multiply like Gremlins.  What I’m saying is: if you claim you’re a photographer, get out there & shoot.  For free, for days, for friends, for fun, for starters.  But you need to start acting like you’re living your dream even if you haven’t exactly made it happen yet.

You can do it!  🙂