I suddenly realized this morning that it’s not just the year that’s winding to a close but the first decade of the 21st century. When I look back at where we’ve been, my God, so much has changed.
In 2000, I started working with Olympus when they introduced the first 35mm style single capture digital camera. In 2003 and 2004, I traveled the country with my partner, Mike Starke, giving Working Digitally, a day-long introduction to digital photography in which we argued – frequently against vociferous nay-sayers – that digital capture was here to stay. In 2008, I opened ASMP’s SB2 conference with the radical suggestion that the attendees allow themselves to be open to defining themselves more broadly – to recognize that our visual communication and creative problem solving skills can transcend our medium.
How is it possible that the unimaginable has become widely adopted so quickly?
The past couple of years have been tough for most of us. The economic crisis, the upheaval of the publishing and advertising industries, the accessibility and availability of photography, I could go on and on. Bottom line – most of us have had to redefine what we do for a living and reinvent how we earn a living doing it.
The good news is things change. This too shall pass. The bad news is things change. And, there’s no end in sight. Clearly learning how to pay attention to where the wind is blowing so we can position ourselves and our businesses to adapt quickly will become even more important. So will being open to new ideas and questioning our assumptions.
A good place to start – and to start right now – is to figure out what your assumptions are.
What boxes have you drawn around yourself? What unconscious rules are you imposing on your business? What old decisions are you sticking to out of habit, even though you, your business or the world have outgrown them? What preconceived notions are holding you back? What have you dismissed as impossible? What limits have you placed on your imagination? What would you build if you allowed yourself to imagine starting over completely from scratch? How can you redefine, not just yourself and your business, but your future?