I was having a conversation with a friend recently, and we got onto the subject of being a young creative professional versus someone who's been doing it for decades. It got me thinking about how much changes over the course of a career, not just in terms of experience and ability, but in how you see yourself, how you handle criticism and, perhaps most importantly, how you deal with other people.
When I started out, I was pretty thick-skinned and a little daring. I didn't spend much time worrying about whether I was qualified or experienced enough to take on an opportunity. If something interesting came along, I'd jump at it, even if it was well above my current experience level.
I'd take a breath, figure out what I needed to do and dive in.
I wasn't fearless. I had doubts like anyone else. I just wasn't going to let them stop me.
That's how you learn. You put yourself out there, take chances, make mistakes, occasionally get in over your head and figure things out. You learn from people who know more than you, develop your instincts and gradually build a body of work and experience that gives you something real to stand behind.
If you're a young artist, photographer, musician or creative professional, my advice is simple: don't wait until you think you're ready. Some of the best opportunities you'll ever have will arrive before you feel qualified to take them. Take the chance. You might surprise yourself.
But understand something else. The creative business isn't always a friendly place.
People will try to take a strip out of you. Some will question your abilities, undermine your confidence, take advantage of your inexperience or try to make you feel like you haven't earned your place. Sometimes it's competition, sometimes insecurity and sometimes just plain bad behaviour.
Learn to recognize the difference between constructive criticism and someone who doesn't know what they're talking about.
As your experience grows, something changes. You become less concerned with what people think of you. Not because you've stopped listening, but because you've learned to distinguish between opinions worth considering and noise that isn't worth your time.
You also stop feeling the need to prove yourself to everyone.
After enough years in the business, you develop a pretty good understanding of what you know, what you don't know and what you've worked hard to accomplish. Someone with little experience questioning your abilities doesn't automatically deserve your attention, let alone your self-doubt.
And here's the important part.
Being thick-skinned doesn't mean accepting disrespect.
You can take criticism. You can admit when you're wrong. You can learn from someone younger, older, more experienced or less experienced than yourself. That's part of being a professional.
But you don't have to tolerate condescension, personal attacks, baseless accusations or someone dismissing your contribution because they think they can.
Don't confuse being easy to work with for being easy to walk over.
Be ambitious. Take chances. Keep learning. Be humble enough to know you don't have all the answers.
But as you build your career, build some standards for how you expect to be treated, too.
When you're starting out, don't let fear stop you. When you've been doing it for years, don't let ignorance intimidate you. And at any stage of your career, don't let someone else's ego determine your worth.