By: Aaron Chang
Last week, I was reading through my Facebook comments on a video I had posted:
Joe’s question made me remember a time in my life when I was told that I was unmarketable as a commercial photographer.
Denied. Rejected. Go home.
I shared this story recently at a Tedx Talk I did recently, along with a slideshow of my work.
The story goes like this — I was 27 and had been shooting surfing for 10 years. I started to get restless and wanted to branch into commercial advertising and shoot bigger photography jobs.
So I flew to LA to meet with some agents.
I was shattered when they told me that I was unmarketable. They said I’d never get the big commercial jobs because I wasn’t specific enough in my focus…
Feeling deflated, I decided to just go back to working in Hawaii, back to what I knew and loved – the ocean. I didn’t make a ton of money. It was a lot of hard work, but I loved every minute of it!
Even getting thrashed within an inch of my life by swimming in dangerous surf, it was what I wanted to do.
Fast forward 20 years — I eventually found all of those things I was searching for. The jobs came to find me in Hawaii because of all of my years of hard work with Surfing magazine.
I followed my passion, and my path opened up. It hasn’t always been an easy path, but it has created a life worth living.
Thank you, Joe for the reminder.