Sitting here doing some billing paperwork. Looked at the calendar and realized…I’d missed it. My anniversary date when I first got into this crazy business and actually got paid to do what I love. Shoot and edit.
It made me feel a little old, again. Seems to be happening more often lately but I remember what seems like not too long ago when I would never miss that date.
Remembering the time when I puffed my chest out and told people I had five years experience doing this job. Ten. Then fifteen…and twenty. As if somehow having all those years of experience meant something. A guarantee of some kind. As we all know…it does not.
I’m well past "30" now. Saw a post on another part of B-Roll Online yesterday from a fellow who was older than me, with about the same years of experience, yet…he was finding himself unable to get a job.
A sad truth for many.
But also a wake up call to all.
Be proud of your experience, yet "years of experience" can be looked at two ways. A person has 34 years of real experience, learning and improving with each and every year or…they have 34 years of experience doing the same skills they learned that first year, over and over again. Never learning and improving, yet, marking time.
I’ve always tried very hard to be the former and not the later. And I think I’ve achieved that goal, for the most part. I still find times where I need to kick myself and keep pushing…and learning.
Part of that learning process is seeing the world for what it is. A tougher place as you get older dealing with ill informed attitudes from those who have full time jobs to offer. Some of those people don’t always value the years of experience as we believe they should.
I used to be the young, talented, go-getter in the newsroom. I still am that fellow but…just not as young.
Life has always been pretty good for me. Managers enjoyed my attitude and experience. It was a plus. But as newsroom managers became younger and younger, I discovered my age and experience were viewed differently. Now a segment of those managers were uncomfortable. They had difficulties supervising someone who was older. Helping managers avoid problems, which I’d learned to avoid the hard way, now seemed to be viewed as a negative. They seemed to prefer I stay quiet. Do what I was told. Allow mistakes to happen. So…I learned to keep my mouth shut. Allow failures to happen. I spent too long learning hard lessons to stay in that environment. I had a choice to make. I let things play out as I knew they would and prepared. It wasn’t easy. It’s never easy. But…I’ve always felt I had to be true to myself. Not let others define who I was or what I could or could not do.
Freelancing, both the good and the bad, have always offered me the freedom I like. It is not for everyone. But it gives me the freedom to succeed as well as the freedom to fail. Lucky for me the "fails" have been few. But "fails" are unavoidable no matter how much or how little experience a person has. The key is to always turn those fails into a positive learning experience.
One of the biggest fails a person can have is feeling trapped with no direction open to them. That’s the reason I’m writing this. After several private messages and reading several posts on this forum from others, I see some lost people who are where I’ve been before. I offer these thoughts in hopes it will give them both hope and direction.
There comes a time when all of us have to make a decision. How to use our skills and still keep making a buck, doing what we love to do. Or…quit and do something completely different.
I’ve been VERY lucky. Tried to always position myself for luck to happen. That’s an important thing to do which many miss. But you have to prepare yourself for that "luck". Otherwise…it will never happen.
I offer this advice to others who may find looking for that next full time job is just out of reach, for reasons well beyond their control. A frightening prospect for anyone. Yet it’s moments like these which define a person.
My freelance life is going rather well. Sure, it can always be better. But reading that post from another individual brought back a lot of memories. Pride and fear. Confidences and doubts. We all have a choice. Be a deer in headlights or…do something.
I’m no fool. Some day I’ll but the camera down. We all will. But not today.
There is no shame in making a change, doing something different. But never be that deer stuck in the headlights. Move forward and be happy. By whatever route is best for you.
However, don’t kid yourself about your future just happening without some effort and courage on your part. 😉