Doing What You Love For A Living

I found this blog post on Moku Studios, a Creative Design team based in Hawaii.  I thought that this sums the entrepreneur angle quite nicely.

Posted by David on Sunday, January 24, 2010 · 6 Comments  

I love creating design for a living. I love the aloha lifestyle. I love working for myself. I love being able to surf when the waves are perfect. And once you’ve tasted that freedom, it’s hard to consider doing anything else no matter how difficult times may get. It can be done. With some risk and sacrifice you can do what you love for a living. Here are a few tips I’d like to share to get you on your way:

1. You Don’t Have To Be A Starving Artist
Most people don’t believe they can be paid well to do what they love. This is simply not true. Unfortunately, it’s a trap many creative people fall victim to. They’ve been raised to believe that all artists are starving, and the work they provide isn’t of any value. There are hordes of people that prey upon this, sometimes unknowingly. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard phrases such as, “It will look great in your portfolio.” Be wary of these words. It implies that they are doing you a favor, and it’s an attempt to elicit cheap work. Phrases like these are traps for artists not confident in their abilities. Which brings me to my next point.

2. Have Confidence In Your Abilities
If you want to be successful doing what you love, take pride in your work and be confident that your time and abilities are worth money. You are providing a skilled service that comes with years of education, talent and hard work. When is the last time you heard of an architect designing a house for $50? Just because your work might not be tangible doesn’t mean it’s not real. In most cases it took a great deal of time and energy to produce. Not only will you be doing yourself a favor by charging fair rates, but you’ll be helping the entire industry.

3. It’s 1000 Times Harder Than Doing What You Hate
But potentially 1000 times more gratifying. Doing what you hate for a living is easy. Essentially your entire life is a strict schedule. As long you color within the lines, your bills will be paid every month. If losing your job is the worst case scenario, you’ll still get unemployment. It’s a relatively risk free lifestyle. That’s what’s so appealing, and so difficult to sacrifice. Doing what you love takes a degree of motivation, dedication and responsibility rarely found in a day job. Not to mention the risk of going broke. You have to set your own hours and be your own boss. It’s easy to fall in to negative routines when you don’t have the constant threat of being fired. Also, your work load will increase 10 fold, and 90% of it will be completely unrelated to doing what you love. But when something you’ve created does get exposure with your name on it; man it’s a great feeling.

4. Always Be Productive
I love to surf, but I can’t do it all the time (as much as people think I do). Work takes priority. And if I don’t have any client work, I always stay productive with personal projects, marketing, promotion, updating my website and much more. In fact, I usually work at least 12 hours a day and most weekends. Although I’ve been trying to cut back on the weekends. I’m lucky if 2 hours a day are actually billable work time. When I do surf, it’s a meditative state for me. The place I go to clear my mind, stay healthy and reflect on what I’ve done and what I need to do. Which I consider to be productive and just as valuable as working.

5. You’re Crazy
The second you decide to give up a successful career to pursue doing what you love, you will be labeled crazy. It’s unavoidable my friend. Your family and friends probably will not understand. And people will secretly want you to fail. There’s a quote from The Pursuit of Happyness, “If people can’t do something themselves, they wanna tell you you can’t do it.” So, be prepared for opposition. If you’re like me, the corporate lifestyle and monotonous daily grind seems crazy. Personally, I think waking up at 6 a.m. to sit in traffic for an hour to sit in a cubicle for 8 hours twiddling my thumbs to sit in traffic again for an hour every day is insane. It’s such a weird concept to me, but to each his own.
When doing anything on your own there’s a potential for great success and great failure. The trick is to keep your head above the water. Don’t become too disappointed and more importantly; don’t let your failures make you bitter. Because you will experience failures. Clients don’t want to work with bitter people. Be proud and happy doing what you love. If you’re good at it, work hard and stay inventive — success is bound to catch up with you sooner or later.

LAS VEGAS Photoshoot sessions - 9/22 - 9/26

I will be offering a photoshoot package to the athletes and anyone else interested in Model Portfolio development in Las Vegas from Wednesday September 22 through 26.


On Location Photoshoot
Las Vegas! I will be offering a promotional rate of $250/hr.

• Model Releases must be signed.
• The best images will be uploaded to my online Gallery where you can purchase prints and merchandise. You will be sent the best proof-marked websize images via web couple of weeks.
• Each image that you want professionally edited will be $25 each. You will receive web and print size of each edited image which would be suitable for commercial or portfolio.

About the Photographer

Natalie Minh started working in the industry as a model in Europe and North America and learned the craft over the years working in front of the lens. Over time this evolved into a career as a photographer where Minh trained under renowned fashion, beauty, glamour, and commercial photographers in Paris, Milan, and Belgium. Her images are being used by well-known modeling agencies throughout Europe, advertising campaigns globally, and published in a number of international magazines.

Now based in Los Angeles, her work has branched out into the Fitness Arena where she contributes to publications such as Muscular Development, Marathon Muscle, Ultra-Fit Mag, etc.  Fitness celebrities include 3x Mr. Olympia Jay Cutler, IFBB Hall of Famers Shawn Ray and Kevin Levrone, 2x Arnold Classic winner Kai Greene, IFBB Japanese superstar Hidetada Yamagishi, 2009 IFBB World Champion female bodybuilder Alina Popa, Internationally ranked fitness competitor Oksana Grishna.

Her services are available to not only commercial clients but models looking to develop their portfolio as well.

Links

Photography Website

Model Mayhem

Facebook

photography@natalieminh.com | 1-424-258-0530

Growing Up in a Immigrant, Big Hearted Family

This morning I reflect on my childhood and how it affects my outlook on life and feeling towards those in need. 

By the way, happy birthday Mom - I love you

My parents immigrated to the United States, immediately following the Vietnam War in the 70's.  Their young marriage was going through a massive challenge that no one could have anticipated..... the war separated them from 1975-1979: 4 years on different continents, post-war environment (family members becoming prisoners of war, communism taking away family business and property), and a young child (my older sister) in the middle of this.  Neither of them wanted to be separated, but war circumstances dictate above wants.  In 1980 they were finally reunited and I was born (can't imagine the stress of an unexpected baby on top of not seeing each other in four years).

But they fought for their family, home, and their new life in America.  My father became a refugee social worker and during my childhood we also fostered refugee children... alot of fun in my house from a kid's point of view!!  I watched my parents selflessly raise many children like their own, be there at the toughest points in their lifes, and make a difference.  We were certainly not a rich family, we had middle class struggles and my mother often worked two jobs to add supplemental income.  I believe that it was my parents' love of children and conviction in representing a stable home for kids to look up to which kept them together during the tough times.

I saw them go through immigrant challenges while growing up: they spoke/wrote broken English, had a tough time tutoring me on my studies because the curriculum was in a non-native language (luckily I was quite nerdy, enjoyed self study, reading by myself), cultural differences in raising your children eastern vs. western culture style.

Until I moved to a foreign country in my adulthood could I appreciate what its like to be "a fish out of the water" as a foreigner.  And still, I had the advantage of full corporate support, a top education, and resources.  My challenges as a foreigner were minute like what my parents experienced, yet was enough to teach me to appreciate the depth of their character.

"Hardship builds Character."

My inspiration to succeed is based on this story.  I work hard to honor my parents and allow them to live their dreams vicariously through me as I am a product of their life's efforts.  They missed opportunities in life because of the war, communism, having a family to raise, and providing stability to kids who needed role models to look up to.

Surround yourself with those you admire for their character, intellect, selflessness, and drive.

Stories like this are the foundation of America's Declaration of Independence and can be summed up from the direct quote -

That all men are by nature equally free and independent, and have certain inherent rights, of which, when they enter into a state of society, they cannot, by any compact, deprive or divest their posterity; namely, the enjoyment of life and liberty, with the means of acquiring and possessing property, and pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety.

We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

Q&A - Self Confidence

Here's a question that I received via email which I would like to share with you...

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Q

Thank you for getting back to me Natalie. It is amazing to me that you are so diversified in the fitness/modeling/photography industry. I have some modeling experience as well.

I have struggled quite a bit in the past few years. I was in an emotionally abusive relationship for 2 ∏ years and I allowed that to eat away at my confidence. I finally got out of it about 9 months ago, but have not been able to truly motivate myself to get back in the shape I used to be in. I grew up dancing and absolutely loved it. I stopped dancing a few years back though. I also love kickboxing and regular gym workouts when I’m motivated. My eating habits are also not the best. First of all, growing up I was super skinny and never had to worry about my weight. I could eat all the fatty foods in the world and not gain a pound. Now that I’m a little older, this is not the case anymore. I am also a stress eater. So, I really need help with my eating habits, because they have never been great.

My main goal is to be confident with myself. I want to be a healthy person and feel great.

I am 5’5” and about 139 lbs right now. This is the heaviest I have ever been. The last time I really felt great about my body was a few years back when I was working out hard and I got down to 125 lbs.

A

I can understand your struggle with relationship and how it impacts your life... I went through a tough breakup myself a few years back and it was the negative energy from that experience that I channeled into my fitness (otherwise would have eaten me alive!).  For myself, I said that the “greatest revenge is massive success” so that was part of the motivation to move to Europe, start a new life, and to transform my physique into a world class one. 

My mother also gave me wonderful advice during this time and that was "When you are having the worst day, put on some nice clothes, do your makeup and hair, make yourself feel beautiful, go outside and put a smile on your face. Your day will feel better." The little things you do to improve your life and how you feel makes a huge difference.

Set yourself a goal of losing 2-3 lbs a month and determine when you would reach your goal weight.  I’m 5’4, 130 lbs off season and 122lbs on season @ 16% bodyfat ( I carry a lot of muscle).  I used a 4 month goal and did weigh-ins every week to keep myself in check.  You can do it!!  Here’s a blog that I wrote on my motivation to stick to my program.

Here’s an interview that I did that is extremely comprehensive regarding my lifestyle, diet, exercise, motivation, life goals.

In addition, take a look at this site which features interviews of many normal people like you and me who are now fitness models or fitness competitors.

Best of luck, let me know if have any questions and I’m rooting for you!

Natalie