becoming truly great - hiatus interrupted

What does it really take to move from being sub-par, or even mediocre, to being truly great? This is the question that has been weighing on my mind recently.

Take this blog for example. I have been doing it for a while. I have been truly passionate about it. I have had both the intellectual and financial capital that is required to run a blog. While I have had some really awesome engagement from some of you [ for which I’m infinitely grateful - I can’t believe how loyally some of you read this blog ], one can say the traffic has been mediocre at best - maybe even sub-par. Then you have someone give it a go for a few months to a year with (in my humble opinion) average quality content, and their traffic explodes, catapulting them to immeasurable success.  

Likewise in real life, some people truly give their endeavour everything they have, only for said endeavour to float endlessly in the sea of mundane averageness. What separates someone who wakes up every morning of their adult life and dedicates hours to the same action, but remains average at said action, and someone who just seems to come out of ‘nowhere’ and becomes the best at it?

Even more frustrating perhaps must be the best runner-ups of this world.  I call them the silver medal specialists. The Frankie Frederickses, Scottie Pippens and Hillary Clintons of this world. What separates them from the Usain Bolts, Michael Jordans and Barack Obamas?

I am determined to get to the bottom of this mystery. Since I’ve been looking into it the phrase ‘hard work’ has been coming up over and over again, but, I suspect there are other factors at play here. I have seen with my own two eyes a scenario whereby the person has definitely NOT worked hard, yet, they’ve achieved success.

Just thought I’d update you with what’s on my mind lately.  Now back to hibernation.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

boots 500AF - part 1

Image
Much displeased am I to report that my nostalgia project isn’t going as smoothly as I expected. Why is it that in a mostly plastic camera, one of the only metallic parts turned out to be the least durable? The source of my said displeasure is a thin little strip of metal. Thus the story goes. Camera number 3 finally. I was excited about this one, as it was my first ‘good’ camera. Branded ‘Boots 500AF’, it has a 34mm f4.3 autofocus (hence the ‘AF’) lens. Come to think of it, both the 34mm (as opposed to 35mm) and f4.3 (rather than f4) are quite obscure values for a film point and shoot. I have no way of telling, but I assume the ‘500’ in the name denotes the maximum shutter speed of 1/500 the camera can achieve, but that’s pure speculation on my part. It has an auto flash, and the lens does a faux zoom action when turned on. Very cool indeed. I read somewhere that it was a rebranding of some Japanese camera, but again, I have found no evidence of this. Oh how...
Read more

praktica bx20

Image
Up until the camera showed up in my life, I had only been using rangefinders and point-and-shoot cameras.  I had gotten used to the parallax error compensation ‘slightly to the left, slightly up’ movement during composition.   I had also given up on all on-camera metering and usually shoot full manual mode, relying most of the time on Sunny-16.  That’s great of course, if all you’re doing is street or travel photography outdoors when you are mostly shooting at distances at which parallax errors don’t matter much, or the minimum focal distance don’t ever come in to play, and you have predictable good light. Like anyone else, I occasionally get the unexplainable urge to take a photo of my feet, or my coffee.  This urge is impossible to resist.  There’s nothing more photographed than own feet and cups of coffee.  If you ever wondered why this is, there is your answer, once and for all – it is a natural urge like thirst or hunger. Ba...
Read more

10 christmas gift ideas for film photographers

Image
The holidays are around the corner. This means peace on earth, joy in heaven, and of course, presents! For that ( analog ) photographer in your life, what do you get them for Christmas that they would appreciate a great deal?  Here are some ideas; [This blog post, as usual, contains affiliate links to Amazon.  I may be compensated if you make a purchase via a link I've provided.] 1. Film This is the obvious one. If your loved one is an analog photographer, or enthusiast, one thing they're constantly buying is film . Find out what camera he/she uses and figure out what film format it takes. The most likely formats are 35mm or 120 (medium format) . You can probably find film at any local camera store - if you're in the UK, at Boots , Snappy Snaps or at a supermarket like Asda . Otherwise you can buy them online like on Amazon or eBay. 2. Polaroid Camera Unless your loved one develops their own film at home, they would usually have to wait for ...
Read more