Will You Dare To Be Early?

One of my favorite Henry Ford lines: “If I asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.”

Yes, you get tasked every day to create for clients. For your creative business to move them with your art. If you are lucky enough, you are busy doing great work for respectful, appreciative clients. Awesome.

But what comes next?

Are you willing to push past your own comfort zone? Can you imagine a place where your art transcends its medium and you are willing to evolve your structure because of it?

Steve Jobs was famous for being proprietary about everything. He wanted to control all facets of Apple, from production to software.  In 2015, Apple made over 6 Billion (yes, billion) Dollars from its App Store. That is from software written by other people. And how fun would your device be without apps? Do you really think IEverything would be what it became without apps? Call it whatever you want, maturity, wisdom, intuition, but Steve Jobs willingness to change his worldview, ahem, changed the world.

Sure, you have to be up on the latest and greatest in your world. So not what I am talking about. I am talking about your willingness to take your structure beyond itself.

I love photography because of how technology has upended every aspect of a professional photographer’s world. Twenty years ago, if you wanted to remember anything of significance you needed a book. The album business existed as a way to organize the memory of the day (wedding, rite of passage, significant life event) as much as it was beautiful in its own right.

Fast forward to today. What is the point of an album when image organization on-line is ubiquitous and very low cost? Albums themselves have to be primarily art; meaning organization is important but the visual story is what is being sold. How many photographers miss the opportunity talk about the story of the album?  Their ability to create this story and their need to be paid to do so?

What if you are the photographer that counts on The Shot? Are you willing to stake your claim to the shot? Will you ignore the album altogether and say my work belongs on your wall? Will you bet the farm on your ability to prove the value of The Shot?  For most of your clients there has been an investment in some sort of visual art in their home. Why not your work?

Invisible walls we build put us in the box where faster horses becomes the goal. “No one will pay me for a fine art print.” “I will lose all of my clients if I dare to be paid as a designer and not just a [caterer, florist, stylist, etc.]” Fear is there, of course. Most of it though is the golden handcuffs of success. People that love what you and your creative business do for them today and are comfortable. They know how you work and respect you.  Will they love the next version? Even if it is better for what they want?  Can you evolve and truly say to your core clients: “I built this for you.”

The world is shifting underneath you. Opportunity is there if you seek it out. The confluence of technology, communication and the willingness to experience everything as our story is a designer’s holy grail. Design is not about any one thing or one creation, it is about the ability to be the universal thread in a client’s life. We are that because your designs made it so.

Now, you can choose not to believe this and be successful in your corner of the world. We will always need credible talent in every nook and cranny of creative business. Talent is always welcome. However, for those of you who wish to dare, are willing to shift your worldview, your app store awaits.

Is your print worth $10,000? Only if you say it is. Only if you truly believe it and only if you are willing live in its value and recreate your creative business around that value.

Nothing ever happens overnight. However, if you see a radical future for yourself, your art and your creative business, be early. Then never leave.