Jealousy, Selfish Ambition & Envy

Scott Kelby teaching at the Southwestern Photojournalism Conference.

Galatians 5:19-21
19 The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20 idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21 and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Let me start today with a confession. I just spent the past five days with some incredible photographers and I was very jealous about their work and their careers.

Scott Kelby

While I applauded their presentations and was really impressed with their work I was also measuring myself to them. I confessed to some of my friends how I was feeling only to discover they too were having similar thoughts.

How do we deal with these feelings?

First we need to acknowledge talented photographers. We also need to tell them that we admire them. The reason for this is this is often the first step to dealing with the problems of jealousy.

I have not only admired photographers in the past I did everything to copy their work. I bought the same gear and even started to dress like them. I do think early in our career it is good to try and copy someone else’s work. This is how we learn. The problem is that when we only copy and not use the process to help us find our own voice.

Esther Havens

At this conference Scott Kelby gave us tips on how to use Raw plugin. For much of the room we were learning how to use Lightroom effectively. I was just thinking—I do that. I started to think I should be up there teaching this material.

Jeremy Cowart

I needed to celebrate how effective Scott Kelby is at teaching. His ability to distill the subject into nuggets and interject humor made everything much more memorable than the way I often teach. I need to work on my teaching. Not copy what Scott does, but learn from him and make it my own.

Jeremy Cowart spoke to the group as well. He is a celebrity photographer who also gives back through Help-Portrait (http://help-portrait.com) a non-profit he started. I was not only jealous of his opportunities, but also envious of his life. Maybe I should dress like him is what actually went through my head. That would look pretty funny. What I need to do is tell Jeremy how much I like his work and impressed with how he carries himself. I need to learn from him and realize I need to carry myself even more professionally than I am doing now.

Garrett Hubbard

Gary Fong

Brad Moore

Esther Havens was at the conference and I am jealous of her work with Living Waters (http://estherhavens.com/blog/archives/1109). What I am learning from Esther is that if I have an idea I can do it. Just do it. She is very impressive. She is helping me realize that opportunities for all of us are right before us—what is stopping us other than ourselves?

Bill Bangham, Garrett Hubbard and Gary Fong were also there and I am jealous of them as well. Each of them does incredible work. What I am learning is to not copy them, but understand why they are successful.

Bill Bangham

Bill Fortney

Jim Veneman

Bruce Strong

Take the time today to write to people that you are jealous of their work and tell them how much you admire their work. See what you can learn from them. Don’t try and become them, but see how what they are doing can inspire you to take action.

What I have learned from this past week—each of us has unique qualities. If we play to our strengths rather than copying others we will be more successful. I recommend Tom Rath's book Strengths Finder (http://www.amazon.com/StrengthsFinder-2-0-Tom-Rath/dp/159562015X) as one way to start this journey if you need some help.