DELIBERATE DELIBERATENESS

Sounds like a word game, eh?

Deliberate Deliberateness.

What does it mean?

It means you are deliberate in being deliberate.

Nothing is left to chance.

Nothing is left unexplored.

Commitment to the extraordinary is a deliberate choice. And being extraordinary is deliberate.

Think of those who have achieved greatness in the arts or any other field.

They are calculating, demanding, fixed on the idea, and immediately vanquish any idea of doing something half-assed.

Greatness is not found in “good enough”.

Greatness is never a part of “it’ll do”.

Greatness is not a part of the ‘me too’ cadres of faux artists trying to glom on to another’s work.

Greatness comes with deliberate and controlled effort, with little to no compromise.

Compromise means good enough.

And what we want, what we crave, what we desire more than anything is that uncompromising art that pushes our sensibilities to new places.

Joni Mitchell’s “Hejira” album.
Steely Dan’s “Aja”.
Buddy Rich’s classic “Channel One Suite”.
Paul Fusco’s photos from the RFK funeral train.
Avedon’s portraits “In the West”.
Eliot Carter’s “String Quartet Number One”.
Joni Sternbach’s portfolio “Surfland”.
The collected works of Weston, Adams, Barnhardt, Caponigro, and Uelsmann.

These are but a tiny few of artists that refuse to compromise. Refuse to be told it can’t be done.

Refuse to back down when it becomes difficult, or the critics begin harping, or when fans fail to materialize for the new stuff.

They didn’t see their work as superficial.

To them, it was extraordinary in that it was deliberately deliberate.

Call it a calling if you will. A voice inside them that forces them to go forward even though all around them are losing their heads over how new, or different the work is.

Miles Davis, John Coltrane, “Bird”, Dave Brubeck… all faced stiff opposition from the mainstream.

But they continued on making what they were SURE of.

These are the people that make me smile.

Sasha Cohen, Kristi Yamaguchi, Scott Hamilton… do you know how many times they fell on hard, damned hard ice?

Just to get up again and try that triple one more time.

Again. And again. And again. And again.

Penn Jillette once noted that many people want to learn to do card tricks as well as he does.

They say to themselves, “hey, I can spend 5 hours learning that trick.”

And then they get to it and practice it for 5 or 6 hours.

But they cannot do the trick because it takes 500 hours to perfect it.

Again. And again. And again.

And so they stop and say “this is not worth it to me.”

“They are correct”, Jillette notes, “it isn’t worth it to them.”

“But it is worth it to me.”

When I talk to photographers about all that has to be given up in order to live a creative life, I sometimes see them turning white, getting a bit of a terrified look in the eyes.

“That’s not worth it to me”, they think to themselves.

And of course, they are right.

But it is worth it to me.

And to you, if you have read this far.

A deliberate examination of what it takes to excel, and what must be sacrificed to get to the levels we want to achieve.

We read a lot about “work/life balance”, and how this celebrity or that billionaire have this incredible ‘work/life balance’.

And I think; Bullshit.

BUUUUUULLLLSHIIIIITTTT.

They may have it now when they are millionaires, or past their prime, but there was no work/life balance on the way up. That is so ludicrous to even suspect that it may be listed as a derangement.

Success takes deliberate drive, deliberate execution, deliberate deliberateness.

AND WAY OVER THE TOP COMMITMENT.

There is no way around it.

I once had coffee with Joel Grimes and he told me he does a portfolio piece every week. He shoots for himself EVERY WEEK. My firend Yechiel Orgel is constantly shooting new work in his NYC studio. Bret Doss, an emerging shooter in Seattle, is shooting for every client he can find… and it is paying off for him in referrals and bigger gigs.

Deliberate. Focused. Uncompromising.

Who do you know who has that unfailing grip on their own value? Who do you follow who makes you want to get up off the chair and DO STUFF!

What can you do today to change your tomorrow for the better?

See you next time.