Forget about 10,000 hours. If that number isn’t familiar, read Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell. The short of it is you need 10,000 hours of practice to become an expert. The long of it is in Gladwell’s book. The truth of it is it wouldn’t matter if you needed 1,000 or 100,000 hours, because most people aren’t gonna get there. And the problem isn’t the amount of time, and it isn’t the ability. It’s that most people aren’t willing to do the boring stuff.

Finding Yourself is Hard
We hear it all day long. Find your voice, be the brand, know who you are, and get good at it. Be a specialist. Sure. All true. But there’s being a specialist because … Read more...

It’s easy to hate Valentine’s Day. There nothing like forced romance to undermine the very notion of it. Couple that with the flower stand that jacked up the prices, a 1-hour stop at Godiva, and dinner with the worst menu any restaurant will serve all year, and you have the perfect recipe for misery.

But if that’s one take on Valentine’s day, then here’s another. How about the ones that mattered? Not for the obligation, but for the simple excitement of showing another person that they meant something? Maybe it was big and bold. Mabye it was small and subtle. Maybe it was a younger version of yourself that got all gussied up in the bad clothes with the bad … Read more...

It’s not too often that I have a news round-up. Actually, I never have before. Probably because I don’t really have a lot of news. But, for those of you who are interested in the occasional tidbits of industry information I do post, be sure to like us on our Facebook page. That’s where I post some of the things I do come across.

As the owner of what I am sure must be the photography blog with the fewest actual pictures on it (something I hope to remedy with the impending re-design I’m working on), I thought I’d share a few more of the images from my post on The Photo Life. And speaking of that, thanks to … Read more...

Stillness is being present. It’s absorbing what’s around you, allowing the silence to grow loud. Stagnation is being stuck. It’s spinning your wheels with the brakes on. Generating so much hustle and bustle that you block everything else out. It’s easy to become so focused on trying to get somewhere you forget to actually get there.

We commonly use the word routine in a derogatory fashion. As something lacking in excitement and devoid of value. But if we let ourselves take it all in, we change. In fact, we always change, whether we want to or not. But being present lets us grow.

Imagine this. Every day, you take a picture of the same thing. You do it any way … Read more...

Stop thinking logically. A simple psychological fact: justification and explanation come after action. In other words, people work backwards. If I ask a stranger to hold a spot in line for me, he’ll like me more for the inconvenience, not less. Why? Choosing to help me leads to conclusion he must like me. Why would someone help a person they didn’t care for? It’s the subconscious at work, and the implications are vast. Action creates result. Barriers dissolve. And logic finds its limits. You create the result. You don’t find it.

So if you’re hitting your pricing and going into your meetings value first, you’re coming at it from the wrong angle. We are built for connection. Forget the logic. … Read more...