Three Simple Rules for Success in Art and in Life

Today, I’d like to share three simple rules for success in art and in life that have helped me through both the ups and the downs.

I don't know why I’m in such a reflective mood these days. Perhaps it’s work changes. Perhaps it’s just the passage of time. But I find myself far less interested in pixel density than in larger issues affecting the industry, the world, and, by extension, my engagement with both. To be fair, I’ve never been particularly interested in pixel density. Or burst speed. Or megapixels. Or in which brand has a microscopic advantage in autofocus speed. I write about those things occasionally in this column. I have to. It’s part of the gig. But I’ve always been more interested in what artists have to say with their art than in the tools they use to create it.

So rather than talk the rule of thirds today or how to calculate the flash duration necessary to capture an iguana in full sprint, I’m instead going to talk about three rules that actually have made a difference in my career and why you might want to follow them as well.

Be Honest

Honesty is the best policy. This is probably one of the first rules you ever learned. Drilled into us by our parents, teachers, and mentors. It’s also probably one of the first rules you ever broke. Mom, I swear I didn’t eat all the cookies in the cookie jar. It was Dad. I swear.

But as we grow and mature, the idea of honesty becomes increasingly more complicated. I’m not talking about moral clarity—that is a different essay on its own. Rather, I mean to discuss how, as we progress, honesty is often mixed in with other emotions such as embarrassment and fear.

One of the first big hurdles every artist faces is being honest with themselves. It takes courage to admit that you want to be an artist. Not in the “Oh, I found a fun new hobby” kind of way. But in the “I want to dedicate my life to this and make it my career” kind of way. When you come to that level of realization, you will likely also come to the realization that not all those around you are going to support your choice. Some will try to talk you out of pursuing your dream out of practicality. A career as an artist, even a successful one, is a long road. It’s far more prudent to get a steady day job than go chasing a career without guarantees. So those who love you will try to gently dissuade you from trying in the first place. Not because they don’t love you, but because they do. And they want to protect you from the potential pain of failure.

Often they can be so convincing that you yourself will start to talk yourself out of the idea. I spent a lot of years thinking I could be happy working a cubicle job and just creating art on the weekends. After all, it was the “smart” thing to do. But every day I clocked in at my day job, a little bit of me was dying on the inside. I knew something was wrong. I knew I wasn’t being honest with myself. It was clear what I wanted. And my approach at the time wasn’t a matter of me being smart. It was a matter of me being afraid to really declare my truth.

Even as I finally did go out on my own and pursued my dream, the battle to repel the urge for self-delusion continued. I played it safe. I tried to just replicate what other (better) artists would produce. I didn’t want to go too far out on a limb, afraid that, if I did, I would be shunned from the industry and cast aside.

What I didn’t know then but live my life by now is the plain fact that what makes you not fit in as an artist is precisely the thing that will make you stand out. I heard a new phrase the other day which has quickly become one of my favorite mottos: “Don’t hide your weird.” It’s those unique things about ourselves that we are most afraid to share that will undoubtedly end up being the part of ourselves that makes us most valuable to the world—and, by extension, to the industry.

You have to be honest with yourself and know who you are. You have to be honest with yourself and acknowledge what you truly want. Then, you need the courage to go for it.

Be Committed

When your loved ones worry that your decision to pursue a life in the arts will be a tough one, they are not wrong. It is a business where there is always more supply than demand. It is a business where there is almost always going to be someone better than you out there. And, even once you do establish yourself, there will always be a younger artist just over the horizon coming to take your spot. You’ll worry constantly. You’ll have your fair share of sleepless nights. You’ll have long stretches without work when you’ll start to wonder if anybody will ever hire you again. You’ll take big swings. You’ll miss. In short, you’re volunteering yourself for a lifetime of struggle.

But this is where another of my favorite phrases comes into play: the hard work is the reward. If you go into this business because you are expecting awards, prestigious assignments, and global praise, you are likely just preparing yourself for sorrow. That’s not to say you won’t get all those things. But external validation is fleeting. It comes and it goes. Worse yet, it’s completely beyond your control. That’s not to say that success isn’t earned. But you can be fully “deserving” of success and not get it due to circumstances that have little to do with talent. So, if you let the end result define your self-value, you are giving all of your power away to others who may not be worthy of it in the first place.

Instead, you need to lean into the hard work. You need to value your own effort. You can’t control how the world is going to respond. But you can control your own behavior. You can set your own standard. And you can hold yourself accountable.

At the end of the day, the end result is out of our hands. We can only dedicate ourselves to giving everything we have. And, in order to do that, we have to love the process as much as we love the end product. You have to absolutely live and breathe your dream knowing full well that it may never come true. The process of creating art has to mean more to you than the possibility that it will make you rich. Just giving your all to the thing you love most is the reward in itself. All the rest is just frosting on the cake.

Be Open

You can probably tell by now that I’m a no-holds-barred kind of guy. I’ve used the phrase “burn the boats” on more than one occasion in casual conversations with strangers. I believe in setting a goal. I believe in setting a plan. And I believe in committing to that plan regardless of what the world throws in your way.

But one thing I have learned along the way is that, even while staying committed, staying open is still required. Does this mean wavering on your commitment? Not exactly. Your dream is your dream. If you’ve been honest with yourself and have committed to doing the work to make it come true, you should see it through. But times change. People change. And, while you may maintain your ultimate goal, finding different paths to reach that goal can be just as essential as plowing full speed ahead.

You need to be determined, but you need to be nimble. You must be confident of your conviction, but still available to change your mind when presented with new evidence. As the years pass, you will—and should—change as a human being. Growth is inevitable. But the world around you will change too. The goalposts will move. So the tenuous high-wire act you’re going to need to pull off is figuring out how to still reach the end of the line when the wire itself keeps changing beneath your feet.

The way to forge ahead is to keep in mind a third simple truth: you are never the finished product. Life is about growth. Sometimes we make change happen. Sometimes change happens to us. But we must keep moving forward. We must keep learning and developing. It can be scary. One of the appeals of learning a new skill is to be able to say, “Okay, fine. I’ve learned how to do that now. I’ll never have to start at the beginning again.” Until, one day, you find an entirely new world has sprouted up that you never saw coming—a world you never asked to be a part of, but which you nonetheless must now learn to navigate.

Just like learning to love hard work, if you can learn to embrace the inevitability of change, you will be preparing yourself mentally and emotionally for the road ahead. Being honest with yourself allows you to hold onto your truth as your guidepost, even as the winds blow in unexpected directions. The only thing we know for sure is that it’s going to be a long journey. So hop on. Enjoy the ride.