Introduction
by Chuck Groot Introduction
Congratulations, on making what are probably going to be one of the most important decisions in your career! Photography: The Art of Success will take you there. By deciding to learn something new, you have taken yourself from a wandering generality to a meaningful specific. Now you must make the decision to follow through and implement the knowledge you are going to gain. By doing this, you will be well on your road to success. Yes, that's right - following through - you must promise yourself that you will follow through! Too many people start something and never finish. Others finish what they read, but never apply it. I know that you are in the top 10% and are not only going to finish this book but will apply what you have learned. Remember, it's much easier and better to look at your business and improve everything 1% than to try to change something 100%. The longest journey is completed one step at a time. This manual was designed so that you can read (and hopefully reread it many times) and actually, physically, work on each challenge. There are many methods that lead to the road of success; my goal is to share as many of these as possible. You must pick and choose the method that best suits your style and temperament. But I do urge you to partake of the various procedures and possibilities so that you get into the habit of accomplishing small successes that will grow to become big successes. It has often been said that bad habits are hard to break and good habits are hard to form. I read somewhere that habits take from 20 to 30 days to become ingrained, but the only way good habits can be formed is to work on them consistently. You have the ability, now decide to produce! It has been well documented that if you don't immediately practice what you learn, you probably won't do it. It is my ardent desire, that you not only find this resource material interesting and positive, but that it will become indispensable to the operation of your business. More importantly - that you do something about it. I 'm not in this to make a quick buck - I'm doing this because I have seen too many talented photographers have their hopes and dreams destroyed because they couldn't figure out a way to run their business properly. Everyone joins and is affected by this loss one way or another. The tunnel of experience is long and wide. As we go on our journey, different ideas, thoughts or concepts meet us. Sometimes if they hit us too early, we can't appreciate their significance or importance. If they hit us too late, some of us can't be flexible enough to change.
Things I often hear are: We've always done it this way! Why do we do it this way? We don't know. It's just done this way. That’s too simple – it won’t work. I won’t do that, that’s beneath me. That’s a dumb idea. I’ve tried that before and it didn’t work. It won’t work here; our town (or studio) is too small. It won’t work here; our town (or studio) is too big. People won’t accept that, they are too conservative. Not in this town because _____________ (you fill in the blank) Hopefully these ideas will hit you now at the right time, in the right way and carries you forward with excitement and enthusiasm. Now let’s get into the flow and succeed. Interestingly enough, many of these ideas, thoughts or concepts you may have heard before. That is because some of them you have heard before, you may have tried them before, you may have failed with them before, you may feel that they don't work, but try it again anyway. Just like the old axiom in sales states - it takes five contacts with a customer on average before they buy; maybe it takes five tries at a marketing or business idea to make it work. Perhaps we just didn't do it right or try hard enough. Let's try again and get it right! As Napoleon Hill, author of "Think and Grow Rich" penned;,b> WHAT THE MIND OF MAN CAN CONCEIVE AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE. Change your thinking, open your mind, do a paradigm shift and old ideas will spawn hundreds of new ones. Worn out ideas will take on a new luster. You may learn that what you did in the past was exactly the best way to do it and with just a few changes, victory will be around the next corner. You may be a rank amateur. You may have twenty-five years experience. What I am going to do is pretend that you are all rank amateurs and that you have had no business experience at all. That way I will be treating everyone as equals. Often we get into a rut and practice a lot of bad habits - it really doesn't take too many of these to truly cripple a business. With this in mind we are going to start our business from scratch. We start by figuring out what you want out of your life. Then we will figure out what we need to get it. We will look at each and every part of your business and develop an overall plan to make it work smoothly, efficiently and profitably. This will be a step-by-step process, taking you through the planning process of starting a successful new business. Charles Swindoll in his book Victory lays the course to victory out in this fashion. Victory is not: 1. An Automatic Inheritance, 2. An Emotional High, 3. A dream Reserved For Super-Saints (photographers), 4. An Independent Achievement, 5. Something that happens as we Passively Wait. Victory IS: 1. Action 2. Aim 3. Discipline 4. Reward My goal is to coach you through these steps. I will only get better - if you get better. I will gain equally to you so I will make sure that you will gain a lot. WE will work through each step, one step at a time, relearning the basics so that once they are ingrained we can be free to break the cocoon of mediocrity. Finally, when all is said and done, and we implement what we have learned; we should be able to get what we want out of life. Included as part of what we earn is success in the form of security and happiness. Let's roll up our sleeves and get to work! Sincerely Chuck Groot
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