Why is it that our society clearly celebrates the chance takers, yet we rarely encourage one another to take chances–especially those people closest to us?
Almost all your favorite artists quit the traditional to pursue their dreams. Steve Jobs and Bill Gates dropped out of college to pursue their passions. Regardless if you wanna be in art, or film, or accounting, or a pro athlete, the story is the same.
Go tell your husband that you’re quitting your well paying job to pursue a career in video and film. Or go tell your parents you’re dropping out of college to pursue photography full time and see what they say.
I’m not saying quit your day job on the spot. But I do find it strange that our culture by-and-large celebrates those people who have taken non-traditional paths to success, but yet it rarely encourages people to take those same paths when success is only a distant dream.
What is wrong with us?
Take that chance. And encourage others in your life to do the same.
Soooo tempting. Great message Chase, and one people need to hear!
True words.
Chase,
Couldn’t agree more with this. I dunno about you but I know I took a massive roll of the dice somewhere along the way and I know that without taking that risk/chance to begin with I’d be leading a completely different life. I was on route to a crazy degree/masters and decided to drop everything and just do what I wanted to do most.
Thanks for the post.
@David
I’m a bit upset to see that your website is straight copy of ChaseJarvis.com. It’s a big lack of creativity in content and visual aspects.
Weak for a photographer… not a «a massive roll of the dice» on that one…
Kevin,
Believe me, this has been a big issue since I first heard of chase about a year ago. It’s actually complete coincidence 🙁 although I find myself in a very tough spot regarding it since his popularity far exceeds my own. After seeing his youtube videos and going to his site I was flabbergasted and pretty upset. There are differences but the scheme is really similar.
I know that some won’t believe me when I say that but all I can do is hope that they do, or eventually fall in and re create my site – which I built from scratch with a lot of effort from myself and staff – which in all honesty I don’t want to do because I worked hard on it.
Chase’s site is again a bit different, he does use livebooks while I have decided to not use flash at all, but yeah…
I apologize for the coincidence and to disappoint you, Kevin. Just believe me when I say the likeness is unintentional, I hope Chase believes that as well. On that note, I’m sure other websites around the interwebs have a similar feel too…
Dave
Go tell your husband that you’re quitting your well paying job to pursue a career in video and film.
I did just that a month ago. Well, except I am the husband and told my wife. December 31st I leave the corporate IT world and strike out on my own.
Sounds crazy in this crazy economy, but 12 years ago I gave up the dream of being a full time photographer to support my wife and my two children. I still support them, but at the still young age of 40, I am going after that dream. It’s scary and exciting at the same time.
I definitely encourage others to do it as well.
My career path got really foggy when I was wrapping up college and working in the corporate world at the same time… 5 years into my corporate job moving up the chain with the safety net, I’m throwing the towel in to pursue my passion of filmmaking. My wife has also thrown in the towel to be by my side and pursue this with me. My last day is tomorrow and I cannot wait.
Working on it–accumulating knowledge & experience while I have something that pays, and also trying to accumulate a safety net. I’m all about taking a chance, but it’d sure be nice to be able to pay the mortgage for a couple or three months….