Among the non-photographic populace, there is this misconception that a photographer just shows up at a lucky time, pulls out their equipment, and snaps a great shot, probably because they have an expensive camera. The photographers among you will roll their eyes at that last phrase. All the time, people look at a great photo, which is the product of years of practice and a lot of planning, and then the viewer says, “You must have a really good camera.” As if the camera does all the work. Yet, no one goes to a fancy restaurant, enjoys an excellent meal, and then request to speak to the chef so they can tell the culinary artist, “You must have a really good pot.” But I digress.
My point was that a great photograph is a combination of planning, experience, experimentation, and a willingness to fail. It does not just happen. Even when a photographer “gets lucky,” it is not luck. It is a matter of having put themselves in the right place, at the right time, with the right equipment and the experience to use that equipment on the fly to capture a fleeting moment before it is gone forever. Great photos do not just happen; exceptional images are the product of planning and years of practice.
And that is also how you make a great life.
It took me several years of pursuing photography as a serious hobby before I made an intuitive leap to the understanding that a great life is a created thing. A great experience does not just happen, nor is it the result of a happy accident — the stories of unhappy lottery winners1 are ubiquitous. Just like a great photograph, a great life is a created thing. It is the product of deliberate effort over time. A great life requires planning, experimentation, experience, and a willingness to fail.
A great life doesn’t happen; it is the product of design. Before I learned this lesson, I was living a life-style by default. I did the things other people did. I went to college, then medical school, then residency and then surgical practice, accumulating debt along the way, because that is what people do. I rarely, if ever, stopped to ask what I wanted out of my life or career. I just followed the default path. After all, it was the well-trodden at my feet. But as Joseph Campbell, the mythologist, put it;
If you can see your path laid out in front of you step by step, you know it’s not your path. Your own path you make with every step you take. That’s why it’s your path.
— Joseph Campbell
The photographer who works to recreate the great images of the artist who came before them will master the photography technique, but they will never create anything new. They will never make that leap to become true artists because they will never develop a unique style that will become their signature. Instead, when people look at the copy artist’s work, all they will see is how it compares to the original master’s work. Living a life of comparison to others is a sure recipe for feeling inferior because someone will always find some way in which you fell short. The way to avoid this trap is to get off the well-worn path and blaze your own trail.
Live a life of design, not one of default.
Blazing your path does not mean it will be easy. It requires a willingness to try lots of different things. You need to be willing to experiment with the full knowledge that most of what you try will not work for you. Tried working out in the gym with a class, and it wasn’t for you? Then try a personal trainer or get outside the gym and exercise in nature. Be willing to experiment with new things until you find that thing that makes you come alive. The things that you want to do, rather than feel you have to do. That thing that has you thinking about it when you are away from it. It could be exercise, painting, writing, reading, fishing, archery, music, gardening, collecting, baking, bird watching, etc. The list is far too extensive for me to try to exhaust it here. More importantly, I suspect you already have an idea of what may bring you alive. You don’t need me to tell you what to do; you just need permission to try. I give you my permission. Will you give yourself permission?
Everything new is hard at first, but the more you try, the better you will get. There is a famous story about the cubist master painter Picasso. The gist of the story is that Picasso was in a cafe sketching on a napkin when an admirer asks if they could have the sketch. Picasso agreed, but ask an exorbitant price for the disposable paper. The admirer was shocked and wanted to know how the great artist could ask so much for something that took him only a minute to draw. “No,” Picasso replied, “It took me 40 years to learn to draw that in one minute.”
The admirer was looking at the result of a lifetime of training on the part of Picasso. What the admirer didn’t see was the rubbish bin full of failed efforts. But that is how you gain experience, one attempt after another.
“Do you know where good judgment comes from?” a mentor in surgical training once ask me.
I waited.
“Good judgment comes from experience. And do you know where experience comes from?” He paused before delivering the punchline “from bad judgment.”
Perhaps not comforting words to hear from your surgeon, but an essential lesson on how one gains skill. Which brings us to the most important lesson.
The willingness to fail is a critical part of learning photography or any craft. The professional photographer’s secret is that most of the photos they make are crap. That’s right; the majority of photos the pro-shooter creates, don’t measure up and won’t be seen by anyone. That is ok, because the professional saves the best, learns from the experience, and moves on to try again. As a Zen master once said, “The master has failed more times than the beginner has even tried.” The pro does not expect every effort to pay off, but they know that if they keep working at it, enough will pay off to make it worthwhile.
Want to stop being a beginner at life, then get out there and start failing. That’s the counterintuitive secret to life; the path to success is paved with failure. So the sooner you get started and the more you fail, the closer you will get to your goal. It’s not a comforting thought, but it is true. If you want to succeed more, you have to be willing to fail more. I figure if one in twenty photographs I make are good, then the way to get more good images is to be willing to take a lot of bad ones. The more I fail, the more I will succeed. So go out and try and fail and remember that every failure is just one more step toward success. As the successful playwright, Samuel Beckett put it;
Ever Tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.
— Samuel Becket
You don’t come alive by accident. It is a deliberate and messy process, but it is worth it in the end. So get out there and try new things until you find that thing that makes you come alive. Then experiment and fail until you make it your own. A great life does not just happen of its own accord. You need to make it happen. You need a lifestyle of your design, rather than a lifestyle of default. Taking that responsibility is intimidating, but it is worth it.
One last note, the next time you see a great photograph, compliment the photographer on their skill and not their equipment.
I hope this article did not fail you. If not, check out this site for a great list of inspiring quotations on failure.
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