[monochrome]

My employer extensively interviewed our 2.5% most successful practitioners. Granted, we're business people, not artists, but the most successful are unique and creative in the application of our business principles. The interviews discovered 7 elements of character consistently found in some combination among our best:

• Innate talent / Street Smarts
• Superior education
• Focus
• An "Attraction' personality / Ability to lead people
• Contacts / Connections
• Luck
• Hard work

To achieve success at their level required a minimum of three 'Points'. Some had three of the seven. Five elements were found in only three interviewed persons.

Hard work counted for two 'Points.'

The largest group had only two of the listed elements of character, but they worked exceedingly hard.

[Class A]

This is true of most professions.

I mostly agree with everything you wrote, except this.

You essentially supported my statement, i.e., that nowadays a professional photographer has to be prepared to live the live of a starving artist. From a business perspective, photography turned from a craft into an art.

My premise here is that there are professions where supply (aspirants) is not exceeding demand (available positions) and where you can generate a steady income without being exceptional or working extremely hard.

What exactly those professions are, depends on the country and specific context, but I hope you agree that such jobs exist. They will typically not be suitable to enable someone's self-fulfilment and allow them to realise their artistic visions, but they will allow one to make a living without the need for daily "I will make it" mantras.

I believe that in the past one could make a living as a photographer in the above sense -- based on more or less mundane assignments -- but that nowadays one should not enter photography unless one is prepared to live the live of a starving artist. Nothing wrong with the latter, but nevertheless a change from the past, no?

[Winder]

Historically if you have a condition in the labor market where demand for labor is greater than supply the market adjusts to reach equilibrium. Labor markets move very slow. The only way it occurs naturally is in emerging markets like the high tech fields, but the market eventually catches up. At one point photopgraphy was a cutting edge field and there was a shortage of people with the skills. It was all manual and you needed a darkroom, a good grasp of chemistry and math. The "craft" has been automated, and all that is left is your vision and drive. Economic and technical barriers have been removed by technology.

Cartels like the AMA (American Medical Association) create legal barriers to there respective industries which can cause a shortage of labor. Regulatory barriers are the primary reason for labor imbalances outside of emerging technologies.