Post 61: The Importance of Personal Work: Part II

In my previous post, I talked about how important I felt personal work was. Today, while reading an interview with Chase Jarvis, the topic of personal work and its importance came up once again.

Schawbel: There are a lot of photographers online trying to solicit business. How do you think you’ve stood out among them and risen to the top?

Jarvis: This might be the most popular question that I get asked.  Probably 10-20 times a week.  And my answer is a simple one:  Personal Work.  Of course you’ve got to be good at your craft – at the fundamentals of being a photographer – in order to become a professional, but that’s really where the technical stuff ends and the standing out begins.  The secret weapon – and my raison d’etre – is really creating personal work and sharing it.  And my experience says that if you put out a lot of personal work that’s good, it tends to attract high dollar commercial work.  But to be clear -  I don’t create art to get high dollar projects, I do high dollar projects so I can create more art.

The rest of the interview can be read here:  http://newsle.com/article/0/119165262/