Business Stuff I've Learned from my Husband
So I married a photographer.
Everyone thought I was nuts.
Everyone thought he was nuts, too– but in his case, they're right. My husband swims with sharks, boats with whales, and camps on the side of mountains for days waiting for a split-second of sunrise.
If I wasn't married to my husband, I never would have had the guts to try writing fiction, much less get it published. From him, I learned it's possible to eventually make money at something that seems, on first glance, completely insane. But I learned a lot of other stuff too. So here a few things I've gleaned from watching his 10 year career.
1. It takes a long time to become an overnight success.
I grew up with the motto: If at first you don't succeed, you're a failure and should give up. Alas, that doesn't get a person very far in life. The truth is, everyone struggles at the beginning of any new endeavor, and as I've learned from my husband, "the beginning" is measured in years, not months.
2. At first you have to shout into the void.
My husband fondly remembers his first presentations– populated by his parents (who are incredibly supportive), his friends, myself and our then-infant daughter. Those early talks would have been far less attended if my husband wasn't so motivated to get people there!
Nowadays, Jon's presentations and classes sell out, often creating waiting lists long enough to require the scheduling of another class or presentation.
What a difference a decade makes!
3. You are not entitled to make money the same way people in your field used to.
This is a hard one for people to wrap their heads around, but when Jon began in photography, all the big-name guys made crazy dough via a few very successful stock agencies. The photographers who were lucky enough to get a lot of pictures in with Getty Images early on made lots of money, those who got in the game later, less so.
But digital changed all that. Almost as soon as Jon started his career, the advent of digital photos and the rise of 99 cent stock agencies like iStock decimated Getty's sales. The old model didn't work anymore, and some said one could no longer make it in the photo biz.
My husband sold fine art prints during the real estate boom to people who needed to fill wall space. When the housing market collapsed, he started doing photo safaris– capitalizing on the zeitgeist of folks with money who'd just lost huge chunks of savings and were suddenly thinking they may as well have some great experiences in life.
He rolled with the punches, and adjusted his business model to fit market trends. Jon always says, "If something worked for someone 30 years ago, it has absolutely no relevance to what's going to work for me today.
As an author, I'm constantly reminding myself of these lessons. It's a long road to get to where I'll be in 10 years. And by the time I get there, it may look a lot different than "success" does now. What I hope is that, like my husband, I'll have the fortitude and determination to get that far.
