019 — 2023 has taught me a lot

A letter to myself

Dear Fabian,

As I write this, the new year 2024 has already begun. 2023 was your first full year of freelancing alongside your part-time job, but sometimes you feel like you have been in the business for many years. You expect to be getting work on a regular basis, comparing yourself to other photographers who have been doing this for a lot longer, have a lot more experience and have made a lot more mistakes than you.

Have you forgotten why you started? To build a sustainable career that you want to pursue for many years to come. Not even sure if making money is what photography means to you.

Please do never forget that you cannot skip a step if you want to be happy, fulfilled and successful in the long run. Mistakes have to be made. Experiences have to be lived. Forcing things does not work. This is and always has been your mindset, please remember this every time you find yourself trying to skip necessary steps.

Rich and meaningful connections with other creatives and people in business are the fundamentals to gain the right exposure and build a sustainable career. Invest the right amount of time in maintaining these relationships, or you will find yourself fighting alone.

You have always been a minimalist in many ways. For next year, I encourage you to continue to find your way in how you approach social media. So many have the same struggle, so few have found a way to use it to their advantage. You can too.

2024 has just started and will provide you so many experiences, learnings and beautiful moments. Never forget — You love what you do.

All the best.

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The best place to see my work is my website. Other places to find me are Instagram and LinkedIn.

Written Thoughts is a newsletter dedicated to creativity and discovering oneself as a photographer and as a person. I'll be sharing experiences, projects, work updates, behind the scenes, my workflow and inspiration. You'll also get small photo bites in a new format called More Photos.

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