Which brings me to the next point, You can be as good as you want to be at whatever it is you want to do. Ask anyone who is self-taught in any subject, trade or hobby, they will usually have a unique experience path that led them to the position they are in today. It generally starts with an idea of becoming great at something because they were inspired by someone else who made them feel a certain passion for the craft (... the Rick Craft). It wasn't an internal battle about how they should do it, which school they should go to and what their backup plan should be. There isn't an option for failing at it. People that are genuinely hungry to learn, do just that. They grasp any means necessary to find out as much information as possible.
In our generation, ignorance is unacceptable. We have every piece of historical, theoretical and inspirational piece of information at our fingertips. Some people will spend hours texting someone they have never met, use apps to put cats shooting lasers out of their eyes all over photos of them at the beach, but somehow they just don't have time to get better at something. The funny thing is, most of the people I know that are in school to do something, are the ones who spend the most time "relaxing" when out of class. This confuses me because you are spending the equivalent of a hefty down payment on a house to learn something that is supposedly going to earn you money for the rest of your life. In contrast to those who are learning on their own, they never stop researching or putting their trade into practice.
Back to quality control. Everyone starts somewhere, I get that. We all have things that we can look back on and laugh because of our inexperience (hopefully). Some people have a false sense of quality and status, I do believe this goes back to our childhood. Example being: some people create and post pictures, songs etc. and they feel it is at it's strongest point. Some people compare the current level of work to other people that are successful, and realize it isn't quite there yet and needs a lot of improvement through critiques and trial and error. The most important thing in my opinion, is to learn and be humble. If you aren't boasting about how great your work is, or how awesome you are, people can only judge your work by what it is. Another thing that most self-taught people will tell you about their journey is how other people they admired helped them along the way. But you are "self-taught" and you had a teacher?! Hold off for a second.. this isn't a classroom and money was not exchanged. The thing about learning from others is that if they can see your passion, they can see your eagerness to learn and possibly make an impact on the world. The simple fact is that people who are legitimately into what they are doing, want to share it with others. There isn't a better feeling than being able to watch someone else grow into a better person and possibly because you gave them a hand. Chances are, if someone has that mentality to begin with, they are going to learn regardless.
Would you rather be remembered as the person who shunned them because you couldn't "give away your trade secrets", or the person that didn't mind answering a few questions to help them along just like your peers did for you?
Which lands us on my last point. Selfishness. There is a great deal of sacrifice once you decide to head down this path. You will lose touch with old friends, find yourself in a weird middle ground that leaves you feeling like you are the only one doing this, and at times, defeated. All of these feelings are normal. You can't hold on to everything from your old life, these things will slow you down and find reasons why you should take the "safe route". This is another thing school doesn't teach you, how to be independent. Selfishness can come in many forms. Obviously there would be another blog post for all of that, but let's stick with this scenario. In most cases, I have found that someone paying for an education generally feels more entitled. There is a prestige that goes along with "I am in blank school to become a _____". In theory that sounds great! In some cases, school is definitely needed but this article is more geared toward artistic approaches. It might impress your parents, or people that aren't involved in your industry, but to people actually doing it, it means nothing without a strong portfolio. The first thing they would ask you upon a job interview would be examples of your work. If all you have to show them is an apple on a table lit with 5 different lighting setups to show shadowing, chances are you aren't getting called back. They have seen this apple 500 times today from your classmates resumes.
Back to selfishness, if you are the kind of person who wouldn't share your nintendo as a child and never learned that it was wrong, you are probably going to carry these traits into your adult life. This is going to make you feel like you have everything because you deserve it, not because you genuinely worked for it. Those who feel deserved, are usually the first ones to withhold information because its "theirs". In reality, we are all imitating something that has previously inspired us even if we aren't aware of it. It can be many things that lead to a certain style, but unless you are currently waiting on a patent for something, don't be a jerk.
The next time someone says "you are naturally talented", instead of taking offense, just realize that it is an accumulative compliment of all of your hard work and of how you were raised. It could have been the smallest most insignificant thing that you experienced earlier in life that will make you have a different view on things as others. It's not genetics, and it's never too late.
This was from my first photoshoot ever. Almost 4 years ago to the day.
Recent photo featured in Vogue Italia. (Model: Vanessa Curry)
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