All This Negativity Sucks

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NOTE: If you are offended by obscene language, sit this one out. It’s late, my back’s killing me and I’ve just about had enough.

So for the past year or so I’ve really gotten into studying photography and design, reading everything that I can get my hands on. Lately though, I’m reading less online, especially from the blogs. To quote Celtics one time head coach Rick Pitino, “All the negativity that's in this town sucks!” He was talking about Boston, I’m talking about the online community. Everywhere you turn it’s doom and gloom, from “the market’s saturated” to “I had the client from hell” and the proceeding one up stories in the comments. Guess what, every market has times where it’s saturated. Every market has bad clients. This isn’t some new thing all you desk jockey’s just discovered for the first damn time. Do you know how many people pick up a hammer or paint brush on a daily basis and call themselves a craftsman? I did it, thousands before me did it, thousands more after I someday leave this trade (God willing) will too.



You think it’s easy for someone to pirate the Adobe Suite and start building websites or buy a cheap dslr and start shooting weddings, all while charging less than you pay in bills never mind profits. Almost everyone thinks they can bang a nail or paint a wall or fix a leaky pipe. Search DIY and a good portion of the results are related to the building trades. It’s simply one of the easiest jobs to get in to. Ever turn on HGTV and watch Holmes on Homes? Every one of those poor bastards hired some slob that didn’t know his ass from his elbow but was able to convince the homeowner otherwise. You know why? Not everyone can afford a contractor that builds mansions for the Brad Pitt’s and Tom Brady’s of the world (I don’t even work for clients that rich). Unfortunately those are the people who will believe anything that’s promised them if the price is right.

Zack Arias recently wrote a post about why cheap photographers are only killing themselves, and while I don’t agree that there isn’t some residual damage done to the market, I also don’t agree that it stops there. It also hurts all the clients that get shitty photos back from their once in a lifetime event (wedding, birth, whatever). And do you know how the photo community reacts? “Serves them right, what the hell did they expect for 500 bucks.” Well ass hat, that 500 bucks took them six months to a year to save up and could have been used for something really tangible, like I don’t, know insurance, or house payments or even putting something tastier than PB & J on the table. The creative arts aren’t a requirement in life. You can survive without art (though I would never want to live in that world). To continue human existence on this planet we need three things, food, shelter, and procreation, everything else is gravy. What I do for a living isn’t even a true requirement of life. Sure I build shelters to keep out the cold and keep you dry, but most of the projects I work on go well beyond the mere basics, and I appreciate the clients that are willing to pay for top notch craftsmanship and quality products.

We too get calls from the other 70% of the population who can’t afford the lux treatment, some work we take and some we don’t. What set’s us apart is that the owner takes the time to get to know the clients first, make sure they are a good fit for the company and educate them on how the process works. After all if they knew it already, they’d probably do it themselves (and for every Joe that starts up a contracting business, there’s a homeowner who thinks they can do it themselves). We are the professionals, they are the clients. They come to us because they need us, it’s up to us to make sure we let them know what we do and how without going into the minutiae. It’s also up to us to deliver. Anything short and we fail, and if we fail, we’re out of business.

So, stop bitching about the market, stop bitching about bad clients, and start doing something about it. For every minute wasted on a blog post or tweet complaining, you could be doing real work like explaining (briefly) why something is the way it is. For each client you push away with your eye rolling and heavy sigh, you could be gaining many more by shutting up, putting on a smile and working with the ones you have. If you want to out sell the low ball bidders, find the clients with the discretionary income and find ways to set yourself apart.  In the end it doesn’t matter anyway, “unless your job’s to help people shit or fuck, it’s not that important, so relax” (borrowed from @ShitMyDadSays).

Remember that these comments hold true for just about every market, switch up photo to design or whatever else and it's still the same. And before someone finds an old tweet of mine, I know I've had these same thoughts, I've just finally reached a point where I'm tired of living in my own negative bubble.


Jimmy


Disclaimer: Take everything I write with a grain of salt, I am not employed nor do I have a degree in much of what I've discussed. I'm just a carpenter that enjoys photography, design and marketing. That said, the previous thousand words or so is my opinion, an opinion which has been cultivated by past education, current readings and research, personal experience, and off hand observations. I feel many times these are more important in life than a piece of paper hanging on the wall or business card in your pocket.