The Professional Amateur
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Goodbye, Suit
Over the last 25 years, I've had a handful of "careers" - that is, things I've been doing for a long time, that I charge for. And I always found them stressful. There's a well-known problem among entrepreneurs, and that's the contrast between monetizing something you love (living the dream), and having to do it for payment (becoming a slave to it). I've heard (and had) this conversation a hundred times, and it always goes the same way. And nobody ever resolves the problem.
But one thing I never hear anyone mention is the strain of constantly proving yourself to people who don't understand what you do. And it's a big one. As a photographer, my potential clients need to know that I can produce great images for a fair price. In order to show them, I have to keep producing great images. If I don't, I become irrelevant and forgotten in no time. So even when nobody is paying me, I've got to be out there, doing what I [used to] love, in the hope of catching the next hot meal and keeping the landlord at bay for another few weeks. And that, my friends, is hard work.
To add to that, I need to keep active on every platform there is, proving my expertise to nobody in particular, by engaging in discussions, having a generally superior quality of viewpoint, technique, process, equipment, attitude and pricing structure, and being generally amazing in every way. And people need to know that I'm available at their convenience, to shoot whatever crap they want shot, in the best possible way, for the lowest possible price, just so I can get food in my belly.
Doesn't this sound like a lot of work?
But it's me, the entrepreneur, who makes me do it. I'm not my own boss, I'm my own slave master. And frankly, that stinks.
Enter The Amateur
When I came up with Burtman.net, I knew it had to be different. I wanted to help people to build and maintain a camper, but not as the ultimate authority on the subject; just as someone who's done it several times and can offer guidance. But more than that, I wanted to show people what I'm up to - to build a brand and hopefully, a following of some kind - but also to share things I wanted to share, despite not necessarily being of a so-called "professional" standard. I wanted to bring back the fun of learning, creating, experimenting and producing things I actually wanted to produce, and I was done with having to present it all as a coherent series of glossy, perfected products, better than anything else you could find.
There are few things I detest more than self-awarded titles. I hate the term "guru". I hate the term "influencer". And above all, I loathe the very belief that anyone is actually either of these things. The truth seems to be that everyone is simply wasting their time trying to find "strategies" to stand out against the infinite backdrop of blugh that is the internet and its clickbait-centric "personalities". Everyone you look up to is winging it. Everyone. They're just lying about it. Well, it's not for me.
I've never been happier, since I put down my professional ambitions and started working on becoming the amateur I always wanted to be - free to try new things and stink them up. As an amateur, I can be honest. I can show you the first and second attempts at things that didn't work out and I can abandon projects when I'm sick of them, or when I just don't possess the skill or understanding to complete them. And I can have fun with that. As an amateur, my ideas don't have to be polished. They can be as rusty as Burt's tail pipe, for all it matters, and I can show them off, all the same. It's liberating. The people who follow my work know that it's constantly changing, being updated and fixed, and sometimes just coming to an unnatural end. That's what life is.
Now that I've been a public amateur for a few years, let me tell you this: I'd never go back to being a professional anything. Ever. Because when I dropped the title, my sense of wonder returned. My ego deflated and my curiosity grew. There's no standard to meet. There's no boss to suck up to. There's no expectation to align with. There's nothing to deliver on. It's amazing! I no longer care if someone does something better than I do. It's unrealistic to think otherwise. Yes, there are better writers, web developers, photographers, and van life blogs. But this one is mine, and it is what it is.
I want you to think about what you've just read, and ask yourselves if, perhaps, you are pushing yourselves too hard to achieve the impossible. Maybe you just need to relax and take things as they come. There's no such thing as "the best". There's only the most arrogant and the priciest, and you don't need to be either, to enjoy yourself and make a living at the same time. I hope this little blob of internet opinion has reached you, in some way, and if so, I'd like to hear what you have to say (don't forget to like, subscribe, share, ding the little bell, sign up, donate, turn in a circle and clap your hands, so I can feel a little better about my life).
As you were.