After nearly twenty years in the IT world, where I earned an attractive salary and attained seniority as a Software Architect, I finally made the tough choice to become a full-time creator. I have wanted to take photos for as long as I can remember. I was discouraged from doing so, one reason being it’s not a career path to follow, as there are better options. As a student, I printed images of other photographers and stuck them on my wall; staring at them was my escape into another world for which I longed.
A Long Path to an Inevitable End Beginning
The pressure from my family and society to pursue higher education, earn money, and make a living led me to the corporate world in information technology. Money was and is essential, and I wasn’t born into a privileged household where I could take my time and explore the options I loved. But all I wanted was to travel and to take photos.
Nevertheless, I bought my first camera, a Canon Powershot S3 IS, from my first salary at age 24, and I have not stopped taking photos since then. My dream never vanished, but for many years, it was placed on hold – by responsibility and duty – by myself, my family, and societal perception. The shackles of the mind kept me bound to my life of resignation. We talk ourselves into scripts of how and where our lives should be based on our fear of failure, social pressure, lack of purpose, and negative self-talk.
A New Beginning as A Full-Time Creator
I have shaken the restraints of a nine-to-five job and am a full-time creator now. I did not want to lead a life resigned to quiet desperation any longer.
The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation ~Henry David Thoreau.
As a youngster taking photos, I had no mentors or end goals. It was a phase of exploration, using the available funds to travel and take pictures. I read a quote once: “Don’t be afraid of walking slowly; be afraid of standing still”. With the daily grind of office hours, all I knew was that I had to keep pressing my camera’s shutter. Luckily, the internet became more accessible, and I found mentors online. Their work sparked my curiosity and made me learn the methods they employed. My unquelled desire to grow and seek knowledge gained through learning and imitating techniques from others allowed me to shape my creative style.
The whispers in my mind had gradually become louder and grown to full pitch, and the call to my passion could no longer be silenced. My inner discontent and the grappling between obligation and the heart broke and finally begged for a choice. The journey here has been difficult, and the choice is both challenging and, at the same time, easy, but I do not regret taking the longer path.
Practically speaking, though, how does one achieve this shift? The theory and idea are lovely, but the enactment is complex and requires much planning. It has, for me, been the culmination of an arduous internal and external journey. Whenever I had considered quitting my job to pursue creativity, the risk-averse voices in my head and around me always asked, “What if you fail?” I realized I needed to consider the opposite: “What if I prevail?”
So, Where to Start?
- Vision
- Creative skills
- Gear
- Financial planning and back-up
- Strategy
- Planning and Retrospectives
Becoming a full-time creator primarily with a dream and vision you do not waver from —even if it is temporarily made to lay low while you achieve other practical goals regarding family and finances.
Practical Steps
From a perspective of practical steps creatively, I must clarify that it’s not as though I had not attempted to build an online community over these last ten years in parallel to maintaining my corporate job. I had shared hundreds of videos on my YouTube channel about landscape photography, which I churned out in volume; the content, in retrospect, was often repetitive and without enough deliberation. However, my ostensible failure does not detract from the experience acquired. With each effort, I always learned more about photography, videography, lighting, sound, graphics, audio, colour grading, and other techniques. My online landscape and night photography course and eBook earned me reasonable supplementary money. I intermittently conducted workshops, taught one-on-ones, and gradually acquired a name. However, time was always a rate-limiting factor as I lived two parallel lives.
My photography channel was not a success online, and I eventually abandoned it because it was leading nowhere, and the algorithm ended up counting in my disfavour.
Over the years, I acquired gear, software, and music subscriptions through my income, one item at a time. These are useless if you do not spend time learning and fully exploring their capabilities. Practice is the key to mastery of any form of art. I have invested thousands of dollars in photography, videography, and traveling. I also used my last two salaries and the annual bonus to build my home studio and buy whatever gear I could before my resignation.
When the internal pressure in me could no longer allow me to live in the office rat race, I was forced to make a definite choice one way or the other.
Planning Finances as a Full-Time Creator
I had saved money over sixteen years and, through my company, invested in a provident fund, which I have now withdrawn. My wife and I have gradually made investments together over the years. Her situation is similar yet different from mine: She is a medical doctor and a serious watercolour artist. Her goals have never been to paint or earn full-time from her art; however, she loves and derives joy from her formal career.
A Plan for Now and the Future
I am well aware that my financial safety net, while not endless, has enabled me to take this leap of faith. One also needs a supportive partner.
My strategy is firstly to grow my new YouTube channel for now, and this is where I am feeding my total energy. I wish to create quality work rather than churn volume to attract online attention through excellence. Although I could approach people for freelance jobs, corporate documentaries, and short social media ads through my network of friends and connections, I have not yet actively pursued these options. When I do, I will be clear about what jobs I will take and what will not. For example, I will work for corporations and individuals to make documentaries rather than wedding and function photography, which hold little appeal to me.
My project planning skills acquired from the software industry are helping me to organise my daily tasks and projects. I am moving forward one video, one photo and one newsletter article at a time with a sense of liberation as I have boundless freedom to explore my creativity. Regular retrospectives with my wife help me understand what is going well, what is not working, how I can improve, and if I am still aligned with my vision. If my YouTube channel doesn’t grow, that’s okay. I will pivot, but I have given myself time to explore that. The idea is to create high-quality content, which takes time. The focus is on quality, not quantity.
A Quote and a Philosophy
Otherwise, I will become a slave to the same routine I ran away from. As for money, it will follow, to quote philosopher Alan Watts:
“And after all, if you do really like what you’re doing, it doesn’t matter what it is, you could eventually become a master of it. The only way to become a master of something is to be really with it. And then you’ll be able to get a good fee for whatever it is. So don’t worry too much.”
