Photographing the remnants of an old stone house on rt 204 in Kratzerville, PA
This post is going to be a little more personal than previous ones. As a wife, mother, student, nurse and the business manager, I find that my attention is pulled from one role to another all day long. This alone, can pose a challenge especially if there are tasks to complete (and there always are)! Sometimes, I seat myself at my desk, hoping to have inspiration for writing a blog post, glance at the unsorted mail or random objects on my desk then slowly but willfully, I wander into a pool of thought, “How did this get here?” Thus, begins my procrastination journey. After spending 20 minutes think about why there is a clean fork in my desk or sorting and filing our household mail, once again, I’m ready to write. About what? Aha, I know.
No matter what kind of business you are in, there is no room for excuses. Everyone has had a coworker or relationship with the ultimate ‘excuser’. Nothing is this person’s fault, everything happens to the ‘excuser’ he/she has nothing to do with these events. Right? You know about these folks?! I had a classmate in high school, he was a nice kid. He played sports, and for some reason in 10th or 11 grade, it seemed that he and I were in every class together. So I had a hefty dose of seeing how he functioned on a daily basis. One day, I remember sitting in class (I’m being vague for humiliation purposes) talking about how great it would be if I could work and practice hard enough that I could dunk a basketball. I thought that would be a challenge that not every 5′ 10″ woman could meet in a lifetime. Given my drive and effort, I could do it. Though I have been tall and slender all my life, this guy was the same height or maybe a smidgen shorter but weighed 30-40 pounds more. Because of his weight advantage and build I didn’t find his disclaimer to be completely ridiculous. Of course, he overheard me talking to my girlfriend and chimed in, “I can dunk. It’s not hard, you have to get the right angle.” At this point, I don’t recall if I scoffed at his statement, responded or just ignored him (filing the claim in my mind to use at a later date).
In any event, a few days later the biweekly gym class was upon us. Thankfully, I remembered to ask him if I could witness this event. Part of the class stood on the basketball court waiting, watching, hoping to witness a miracle. I had, only on 2 occasions, seen high school basketball players dunk, and these guys were huge! They stood upwards of 6′ 4″ or taller and even they couldn’t perform it with finesse. So watching this guy run from the foul line to the basket, then jump, using all his strength and force to only touch the net halfway to the rim. Ho-hum. After safely landing back on his sneakered feet, he carefully inspected the bottom of either shoe then said, “Hmm, I think there was a stone in my shoe.” I thought, Really? A stone would prevent you from dunking? Oh did I forget to mention, he didn’t have a ball in hand; it was a warm up and already he had excused himself out of completing something he was boasting about just days before.
Now I didn’t type this story to make fun of this person, it served as an example to me. As I was learning to live on my own in New York city without family there to bail me out, I kept this kid in the back of my mind. I didn’t want to write checks that I couldn’t cash so-to-speak. He probably grew up to be an ok person and though I don’t recall anyone making fun of him in this instance, I think he had a few more entanglements that weren’t so kind.
Back to my point, running a business has it’s ups and downs, understandably; not everything is predictable and clean, either. Part of my job is to roll with the trends and not let the bumpy road take us completely off track. Dean is great when it comes to creating the art, brainstorming, calculating lighting needs and other controls for photo shoots etc. Once that is complete, then its up to me to make sure we can do that (ie. finding props, space, making contact with models, finding new ones, keeping a professional rapport with everyone we work for and with). I love what I do and that I can contribute to the business but I always keep in mind that this isn’t the place for excuses. People care that it’s completed and completed well.
