Whenever I make new friends, or bump into an old one, a common refrain I often hear is, “Wow, you’re so lucky! You have such a great job, and you get to travel the world!”
Which is true. I do count myself as among the fortunate and can’t ask for a more incredible way to make a living. The ability to spend a Monday afternoon sitting in an outdoor cafe catching up on some reading, or being paid to travel to beautiful places around the world, or not having to wake up at 7 in the morning to fight rush hour traffic, is simply unbeatable.
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Kuching River, Sarawak
Pier in Penang, Malaysia
Nighttime in Waikiki, Hawaii
Most people think that those who are living their dreams — whether it’d be the musician with a record deal, or the business owner whose company just went IPO, or the full-time wedding photographer — have this glamorous life. After all, they see the beautiful pictures, the successes, the lifestyle. But here’s the rest of the story they often don’t know about: They don’t see the 60-80 hour work-weeks we pull on a regular basis. They don’t see the thousands of dollars we routinely risk (and unfortunately often lose) in business investments. They don’t see the tremendous sacrifices involved.
Many times, David comes into our home office at 3pm after he’s done with his other job, and works on studio tasks till 11 at night. Our editor Megan spends more time than I do traveling the world — but even while on the road, she often has to stay indoors to finish a project. Our designer Kate has a full time job working for Vanity Fair in addition to doing our album designs, but she too had to make sacrifice after sacrifice to get to where she is today. Our studio manager Christina is the most recent addition to our team, but even while she’s on vacation, I see her pulling long hours to get the job done. (I’m not making her do it, I swear!)
Dream chasing involves A LOT of hard work, and a daunting amount of risk-taking. People rightly want to hear stories. They want to hear of adventures, and of the beautiful places we’ve been to. But the fact is, in between moments of living a “rock star lifestyle” (How do rockstars really live, anyway?), our days can be filled with activity that isn’t tweet-worthy, or the kind of work that isn’t interesting enough to share. 4-hour layovers at airports (where I’m writing this) can make one stir-crazy. Responding to email after email can get old fast. And turning down yet another birthday invite because there’s a wedding to shoot can make it that much harder to maintain a vibrant social life.
“What exciting thing did you to today?”
“I sat in front of the computer and edited for 6 hours straight.”
“Oh …”
As I meet other dream chasers in my travels — the jewelry designer, the breakdancer, the musician, the software programmer, the social worker — the same stories eventually surface: the price that our passions extract from us, the nitty gritty disciplines that make the wheels turn.
A case in point: Many girls would love to own a cute little downtown cafe. My friend Hannah does just that, and I’m incredibly proud of her for it. In just 2 years, her shop has quickly attained some of the highest Yelp ratings in the area, and she’s more than doubled her roster of employees. But for that, she has to wake up at 4 every morning, and sacrifice her weekends. Not too long ago, I stopped by her kitchen to see how she was doing.
“Have you had lunch yet?”
“Lunch? I don’t have time to eat today! I haven’t had have time to rest all week!”
Another example: A couple weeks ago, I was hanging out with Michelle Phan, makeup guru and one of YouTube’s biggest stars. We’ve known each other since our Xanga days back in 2004, and her astronomical rise in the makeup industry had been incredible to witness. Not only is she published in magazines around the world and works as a spokesperson for Lancôme, but she’s also going to be announcing something completely unprecedented in the near future. Her little empire is expanding, with no slowdown in sight.
“How many hours a week are working on your business?” I asked her.
“I’m doing work pretty much every waking hour.”
I looked at her. She wasn’t kidding.
For those who are able to live their dreams, it’s not so much luck or talent that makes it reality, but good business savvy, and sheer amounts of hard work — far more than what the average person is willing to persevere through. But you see, even with all these sacrifices, all these risks, we continue doing what we do, and we wouldn’t have it otherwise. Why? Because we’re not just responding to another email, or not just serving another customer, or not just (you fill in the blank). We’re building a dream for which we would sacrifice everything, and because of that, the work — even the mundane — is intensely meaningful.
There once was a man who traveled all over the globe, searching for wisdom and knowledge.
He came upon a city, and in the midst, found a great construction site.
Approaching the nearest worker, the man asked, “Excuse me. May I ask what’s going on here?”
The worker replied curtly, “Can’t you see? I’m laying bricks.”
He went to a second worker doing the same thing, and posed the same question.
The second worker answered, “Can’t you see? I’m earning a living to support my family.”
He then approached a third laborer, who replied with great pride,
“Can’t you see? We’re building a cathedral.”
Basílica de Nuestra Señora de la Altagracia in Higuey, the Dominican Republic
Kota Kinabalu, Sabah
Altos de Chavón in La Romana, the Dominican Republic
(one of the towns in the countryside) South Korea
Yours truly, taking a boat ride across the river in Kuching. Picture by Shuli.
This thing that you do everyday — what is it for? Are you just laying bricks, just earning a living? Or are you building a cathedral? There’s no wrong answer. But personally, I strongly agree with what open-source leader Tim O’Reilly once said: ”Pursue something so important that even if you failed, the world would be better off.”
To those unsure if they should pursue their dream: Realize that your passion is going to extract from you a price far heavier than what you are expecting. It’s going to require all of you, and will push you to your limits — and even beyond. Through this fire, you will see what you are made of. This is not for everybody, but if you’re able to persevere through, if you’re able to break through to the other side … you will find that the whole world has opened up for you.
To my fellow dream chasers: Let us do the work! Reports need to be analyzed, packages need to be mailed, blog entries need to be written, filing needs to be done. It’s unglamorous. It can be tedious at times. But hey — look at this thing we’re building! It’s an extraordinary life.
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Travel schedule
Korea/Malaysia/Singapore: December 21 – January 11
Las Vegas: February 20-24
SLO: April 8-10
Sacramento: May 3-5
NYC: May 12-17
LA: July 14-18
Boston: August 18-22
LA: September 16-19
SLO, Hawaii, Sacramento, NYC, etc: dates pending
Australia: March 2012
For booking inquiries worldwide, or for more information about wedding photography in the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond, get in touch with us via our contact form.
by Junshien
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