Looking Outside

A couple of days ago Carolyn Wright (PhotoAttorney.com) asked me to look at a contract that has generated some discussion in the photo community and do some research/analysis on it. I did and she posted the results along with her thoughts on her blog (here). I was really honored that she thought well enough of my work to post it with only a few small edits. I felt all lawyer-y (even though I’m not one until June 1) and rather proud of myself.

As soon as it was posted, I emailed my father, a retired attorney, and sent him the link. I thought that he’d read it and let me know how he thought I sounded professional or something. But he didn’t. In fact, I didn’t hear anything from him.

When I later spoke with him I asked if he had read it.
He said he had.
That’s it.
I asked what he thought about it.
He replied that he wasn’t qualified to judge.
I said “You practiced for how many years?! Of course you are!”
But he countered with “I never did anything with intellectual property so I have no idea what you’re talking about there.”

In other words, I couldn’t get a pat on the back out of him about that post for anything.

And suddenly, this thing I had done didn’t seem like such an accomplishment after all. Poo.

The reality is that the accomplishment is just as significant as it always was. The trouble was that I was too trapped in looking for external validation to see what I had done for its own worth, in my own heart and mind.

See, I had done what many creatives do all the time: I looked for validation outside and when I didn’t get it, I devalued what I had done.

How often do you get excited about a project, a promo idea, an image you’ve made, or something you have done only to have someone else not get as excited about it as you were? How often do you let that become a disappointment and affect how you see your idea/image/whatever?

Well, stop it.

Being a creative professional means that above all else, you need to have the faith in your own creativity. That means if you think your idea/image/whatever is great, it’s great, no matter what anyone (even a consultant like me) might say. You can’t look to others for that validation–you must generate it from within.

As others have noted, you will hear a whole pile of “no” before you ever get a “yes” in this business. So, in my opinion, you have to have your own belief in your work/creativity/ideas as a rock-solid foundation to put up with all that negativity. The successful people of this world (not just creatives, but across the board) are those who believe first in themselves, no matter how nuts others think they are. They understand that what they create is of value and believe in that value, no matter what others say.

You need to be such a person, too.

 

4 Replies to “Looking Outside”

  1. A photographer once showed his portfolio to a famous artist (I think it was Picasso) who looked through it carefully, obviously considering the images, but then set it down and said nothing. When he asked what Picasso thought, he said, “it doesn’t matter what I think, your art is your art.”

    Now, that could be taken as a poite don’t-say-anything answer, but I think he meant it. (Assuming this happened at all.) You can have discussion about technique, and you can say whether something appeals to you or not, but you really can’t tell somebody whether their art is “good” or not. If it does want they wanted it to do, it’s good. If not, it’s not.

    By the way, you will encounter this a lot with regard to IP. All lawyers have some specialties, but while we all know something about the big subjects (i.e. The required courses in law school) even if we don’t do a lot with them, one rarely encounters a lawyer who knows “a little” about IP law.

  2. I said it before, and I’ll say it again: Artists are the world’s leaders. We stimulate thought (hopefully) and every time we create we throw it out there, not just for the world to see, but for the world to judge and openly criticize. And regardless of the criticism, we do it all over again.

    Welcome to the club!

  3. I have always wondered why an artist can get 99 praises, and one negative comment, and spend so much time focused on that negative statement.

    I have seen it. I don’t get it.
    (And yes, I have done it as well.)

    It takes time to revert to the natural way of self value.
    Pop culture doesn’t have much respect for self value – instead it is group think.

    And of course there is always the possibility that self assessment may be somewhat lacking in a relationship to reality. I say that remembering what the auditions for singing and dancing reality shows look like.

  4. From the post:

    As others have noted, you will hear a whole pile of “no” before you ever get a “yes” in this business.

    To which I say:

    I prospect for business via cold calls and warm calls. And there are times when I tell myself that I need to get some no’s. So, I pick up the phone and start working on my daily “no” quota.

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