I have never liked people like Tony Robbins and that. I view them as elite level scam artists selling BS and I want nothing to do with attitudes like this. 99.99 of the people he teaches won't end up rich and the only reason he is rich is because he's scamming people into thinking they can be too. That's a real nice way to be successful, NOT.
There is more to life than making six figures. If I wanted to be making that I'd be making it. I can sell rings around most people when I'm motivated, and I used to when I worked for other people. Fact is I'm not that person anymore and I don't want to be. I don't want to be more focused on how many zeros I have in the bank than on what I am doing in my studio. Yes, a photography studio is a business and you do have to market your product, IE your photography, but IMHO if you're doing more marketing than you are shooting? You're not the kind of photographer I want to be.
I would honestly rather have 2 or 3 sessions a week and make $400-500 that week than have a business where 3/4 of my time is spent pushing my business and where I make 500K a year. Money is nice. I do like being able to pay my rent and I like going away now and again, but I don't need the big house, the fancy car, the million dollar retirement accounts. What I do like is actually having a personal relationship with the people I do shoot, taking my time on those shoots, and having a life outside my work.
Hard selling is not a zen thing for me. I can do it, and how, but hard selling hypes me up, makes me crazy, and sucks the enjoyment right out of working for me. I like the very soft sell. So do my clients usually. Most of my business is not coming from the ads I run. It's coming from people I've shot telling other people about me, about how relaxed shooting with me was and how much fun they or their kids had, about how good I made them feel about themselves. I love that.
I love being able to go into the shoot feeling relaxed and knowing it's going to be fun for us, not stressful. I don't want to come out of that lovely experience intent upon suckering my clients into buying more than they intended to. Before I even go into the studio all that is worked out, and I mean that in a very low key manner. My clients they know my focus is on THEM, not on how many different posed they want or how many prints/CD's I want to sell them.
This guy, he wants to run his studio more like a 100 million dollar real estate company, more power to him. But that's not why I got into doing photography. He can look down on little photographers like me all he wants. No doubt he'd consider me "unmotivated" given the relatively small bank account I usually have, but he would be wrong. I am motivated. I'm motivated by joy of my work, not the ultimate size of my wallet. For some people everything they do comes down to making money. I am not one of those people.
There was a time in my life when I could have "married up" as they say and probably ended up with more money than this guy will likely see in his lifetime. But when I looked at the strings attached to that money, the life I would be leading, how different I'd end up from the person I considered myself to be, I said "NOPE, SORRY." and I ran like a bat out of hell. It was the smartest thing I ever did. I still say that knowing now that unfortunately the way it would have ended up I'd been left a VERY rich widow...
"Money makes the world go round..."
For some people, yeah, but not for me. People like this guy they will never understand people like me. They believe making money is the main reason to do anything, and usually they don't care who they step on to get there. Anyone who doesn't want to "make it" like they do is their social inferior. They are not worth knowing because they can't contribute to their bottom line. If they can be used to make money, that's one thing, but they're definitely not to be invited into the potential billionaire's club. I believe making some money and paying my bills is just something that comes along with getting to work in a profession I love. They believe that making money is the most important reason they are doing what they do. Photographers like that they like making great photos, but it's more about ego and money than it is the work. Yeah, they are fussy about making sure it's 100% perfect, but that's because anything imperfect would hurt their bottom line. They have to be seen as extraordinary in everything they do if they want to keep the big bucks coming. They have to be seen as master photographers or no one will want to read their books or pay mega bucks to go to their seminars...
Years ago I actually turned down a job making 3X what I was making because I just loved doing the job I had at the time. I was beading, something I love doing, for pay. My money oriented roomie at the time she was horrified. I was making enough to pay my bills, eat well, and put some away, enough that I could work and still take off sometimes do some theater now and again. My boss was cool with that, and that was enough for me. But she was just flabbergasted that I wanted to keep that job over the one offered. Unfortunately I let her bully me into doing it eventually. After a while the constant arguing just wore me down and I left the job I liked and that worked for me to go into that other company and make more money. HUGE mistake. I was bored and miserable and they knew it. I was a hard worker regardless. They liked me and they wanted to keep me but in the end I left there and went to work somewhere else where I was a bit happier and yes, making less money. What I really wanted was to go back to my original job but that unfortunately wasn't possible because at that company once you left they wouldn't rehire you...
What I learned from that experience and from dating that guy was that no amount of money is worth spending your whole life chasing it or trying to keep up with it in other ways. For people like me it's just not healthy trying. It took a long time for that lesson to stick. Despite my resolve to do otherwise I ended up chasing the almighty dollar for years even though I knew I'd never be happy doing it. I ran that race for the gold for a long, long time. In the end I paid for it too. If I had kept to that resolve I'd have likely ended up a lot healthier than I am now. I'm finally happy, but I will likely never get back my health and in my mind that way way too heavy a price to pay for the money I made back then. I honestly wish I'd quit, scaled back, done this 20 years ago. If I had? I really doubt I'd be in the situation am health-wise that I am now. being intent upon making that kind of money, living head up and always trying to make more? It means making a lot of stress too. It ultimately changes you in ways I just don't like.
My ultimate goals right now are very simple. I want to get through this tough time of living here and taking care of Dad. I want to end up doing as much photographic work as I need to to be able to pay bills and put some $$$ by if at all possible. When Dad is gone I want to travel to the UK and maybe Europe a bit, then move out to the West Coast, find a simple place of my own to live that affords me a space to work in, write and do my crafts in. I may expand my crafts business a bit and I'll likely focus more on the niche markets for my photography out there as well, but I don't plan on changing things all that much really. I will likely never make more than 75K a year and you know what?
That's OKAY...
This guy, he'd probably scratch his head at that, at my thinking, but whatever...
:)