Aleksandra Galert's Blog: I'm thinking about... - Posts Tagged "success"

Have you ever noticed that many of the most successful people ever were staying together? Like, for example, Albert Einstein, who knew Maria Skłodowska-Curie for years. They were spending holidays together, meeting at the science conferences, working together for the League of Nations. Or the famous Parisian salon of Gertrude Stein, where she was accompanied by such icons like Pablo Picasso, Ernest Hemingway or James Joyce, to name just a few (you can see it in the Woody Allen’s “Midnight in Paris”). You must have been amazed listening about the famous meetings in Els Quatre Gats thinking: “Wow! It must have been extraordinary! So many so talented and famous people in one place!”.

The thing is that yes, they were very talented, but what we can assume is that without those meetings and company of each other, they would probably be neither that successful nor famous. We think that they met when they were already on top, but it’s not true. It was often the starting point of their careers. You must know the saying: when in Rome, do as the Romans do. A group of people with quite similar interests and goals helps to motivate and inspire each other. When you enter a group of people where success and wealth are something normal, you start becoming like them. Things that earlier seemed impossible or very hard to achieve, suddenly become as usual as eating breakfast. You learn what your fellows do, you start sharing their way of thinking and thanks to this, you become like them – in a positive meaning of this phrase. In such a group, you can remain individual and special, but you’d be surrounded by people, who believe in the things you do, who encourage you to move forward, who don’t say that something is impossible. Such group is a power.

Of course, it’s not easy to find such a group, especially if you’re at the beginning of your way. But it’s crucial to work on it, look for the people who succeed in what you want to succeed in, learn from them and share your ideas with them. As Jim Rohn said: “You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.” So if people who surround you are not motivating you and they don’t believe success is at all possible, don’t count on big results on your side. Of course, you can’t change your family, but you can reduce the negative influence they have on you (if they do), by spending time with people who encourage you to be your best self. As I said, it’s not easy to find such people, but it’s worth the effort.

A year ago I was at a crossroad in my photography education, as I wanted to make some course ending with a certificate. On one hand, I could stay with a group of people I liked very much and a teacher, who taught me a lot. That “master” as we called him, was starting to teach in a free public school in my city. On the other hand, I found a very interesting private school in Warsaw (around 100km from my city), for which, of course, I had to pay quite much. I chose the second option and now I know it was a very good decision. Here’s why:

I’m still a member of the Facebook group that I spent so much time with and I noticed something that, I have to admit, irritates me and makes me a bit bored with that group. That is the fact that the group doesn’t develop. Always the same people post pictures, always in the same style, and our monthly competitions for the Photo of the Month lost their energy and are won always with the same kind of pictures. I know many of those people go to the school, I rejected, but I don’t see much evolution, much progress. I don’t say that the group is bad: it is full of people, who take pictures just for fun and that is enough for them. And I’m happy of their joy. But this is too little for me. I appreciate what the teacher taught me, but I already know his opinions on different aspects of photography, and he won’t teach me much more, except for maybe some technical issues. And it’s also not enough for me.

Choosing the school in Warsaw was one of my best decisions in life. Yes, every two weeks I travel there for a weekend, I have to sleep in a hotel and I come back exhausted on Sunday night, while on Monday I have other classes. Yes, I pay for it, while the other school was for free. But this one is worth every effort. I’ve learned things about photography, I had no idea even existed. There are many teachers in this school and they are on purpose chosen the way that each of them has a totally different opinion on photography. Now I’m getting used to it, but at the beginning, after a weekend spent with 10 different opinions and ideas, I felt as if my brain was exploding! And it was great! The headmaster wants us to create our own opinions on the basis of knowing so many possibilities. It seems the teachers demand a lot, especially at the beginning, when you feel totally lost with all those new information, but it turns out it’s doable. They encourage you to try new things. I see a big progress in my pictures and I’m solving the problems earlier I couldn’t deal with. And now the thing I love the most about my new school: it’s the first educational unit, where I heard ‘Write, what you think’. In every school, especially in law school, I hear ‘Write from books of wise people, because what can you write on your own if you don’t know anything’. I’m sure you know it from your own education, more or less all schools are like this. But in this one, I heard from my professor, who is a known and respected photographer: ‘Write what you feel and think. Absolutely, don’t read any commentaries of others! Just watch the pictures and write! You can write whatever you want, you can write that you don’t like my pictures, but it has to be your opinion!’. The first school that cares what I think!

Coming back to the title of this post, I think it’s essential to know, when to say ‘Stop. It was nice, but I need something more now’. I wrote all that story about my photo schools, because I think it explains the best what I want to say. It is good to get to know opinions of different people, even if you disagree. But to be able to disagree, you have to know them! It opens your eyes to the existence of the new worlds, you had no idea about! The change of the environment helps you to develop, make your progress, find yourself and become better at what you do. It might be hard to ‘cut the umbilical cord’, but you don’t have to cut it totally. I’m still in touch with the people of my first photo group, but I understand them less and less. People change, evaluate and it’s good. That is how progress is made. So if you’re on the point of life, where you feel you’d like something more, don’t hesitate. Just change your environment. Remember that if you change nothing, nothing will change. If you dream about something, but you don’t change anything in your life, nothing in your life will change! That’s the thing! So keep in mind, what the people you’re leaving had taught you, be grateful for that, and move forward, ready for meeting and learning the new. Remember that you’re the average of the five people you spend the most time with. So choose wisely and don’t be afraid to make the next step.

A year ago I was at a crossroad in my photography education, as I wanted to make some course ending with a certificate. On one hand, I could stay with a group of people I liked very much and a teacher, who taught me a lot. That “master” as we called him, was starting to teach in a free public school in my city. On the other hand, I found a very interesting private school in Warsaw (around 100km from my city), for which, of course, I had to pay quite much. I chose the second option and now I know it was a very good decision. Here’s why:

I’m still a member of the Facebook group that I spent so much time with and I noticed something that, I have to admit, irritates me and makes me a bit bored with that group. That is the fact that the group doesn’t develop. Always the same people post pictures, always in the same style, and our monthly competitions for the Photo of the Month lost their energy and are won always with the same kind of pictures. I know many of those people go to the school, I rejected, but I don’t see much evolution, much progress. I don’t say that the group is bad: it is full of people, who take pictures just for fun and that is enough for them. And I’m happy of their joy. But this is too little for me. I appreciate what the teacher taught me, but I already know his opinions on different aspects of photography, and he won’t teach me much more, except for maybe some technical issues. And it’s also not enough for me.

Choosing the school in Warsaw was one of my best decisions in life. Yes, every two weeks I travel there for a weekend, I have to sleep in a hotel and I come back exhausted on Sunday night, while on Monday I have other classes. Yes, I pay for it, while the other school was for free. But this one is worth every effort. I’ve learned things about photography, I had no idea even existed. There are many teachers in this school and they are on purpose chosen the way that each of them has a totally different opinion on photography. Now I’m getting used to it, but at the beginning, after a weekend spent with 10 different opinions and ideas, I felt as if my brain was exploding! And it was great! The headmaster wants us to create our own opinions on the basis of knowing so many possibilities. It seems the teachers demand a lot, especially at the beginning, when you feel totally lost with all those new information, but it turns out it’s doable. They encourage you to try new things. I see a big progress in my pictures and I’m solving the problems earlier I couldn’t deal with. And now the thing I love the most about my new school: it’s the first educational unit, where I heard ‘Write, what you think’. In every school, especially in law school, I hear ‘Write from books of wise people, because what can you write on your own if you don’t know anything’. I’m sure you know it from your own education, more or less all schools are like this. But in this one, I heard from my professor, who is a known and respected photographer: ‘Write what you feel and think. Absolutely, don’t read any commentaries of others! Just watch the pictures and write! You can write whatever you want, you can write that you don’t like my pictures, but it has to be your opinion!’. The first school that cares what I think!

Coming back to the title of this post, I think it’s essential to know, when to say ‘Stop. It was nice, but I need something more now’. I wrote all that story about my photo schools, because I think it explains the best what I want to say. It is good to get to know opinions of different people, even if you disagree. But to be able to disagree, you have to know them! It opens your eyes to the existence of the new worlds, you had no idea about! The change of the environment helps you to develop, make your progress, find yourself and become better at what you do. It might be hard to ‘cut the umbilical cord’, but you don’t have to cut it totally. I’m still in touch with the people of my first photo group, but I understand them less and less. People change, evaluate and it’s good. That is how progress is made. So if you’re on the point of life, where you feel you’d like something more, don’t hesitate. Just change your environment. Remember that if you change nothing, nothing will change. If you dream about something, but you don’t change anything in your life, nothing in your life will change! That’s the thing! So keep in mind, what the people you’re leaving had taught you, be grateful for that, and move forward, ready for meeting and learning the new. Remember that you’re the average of the five people you spend the most time with. So choose wisely and don’t be afraid to make the next step.