A couple people asked me for some extended thoughts on this topic. So here ya go.
I get emails all the time from high school students asking about what they should study, what cameras to buy, where they should go to school, etc. As I said above, I think if you’re going to go to college or your parents are going to force you to go to college, then you should really put your focus on studying all things business, marketing and especially money related.
Granted, you don’t have to choose one or the other but I would make art the lesser priority.
Why?
1. You’re going to learn how to be an artist no matter what because you’re passionate about it. You’ll figure it out. I’m seeing amazing young photographers all the time on OKDOTHIS
. I’m talking high school students and sometimes even younger. Crazy talk. It’s inspiring to see them learning lighting and photoshop out of pure passion of making great images.
2. There’s never going to come a day later in your artistic career when you’ll say “Gosh, I just can’t WAIT to learn about money, business and marketing! YAY!!!” Nope, not gonna happen. So why not do that in college?
I can tell you this. As a commercial photographer, I probably spend 5-10 days a month taking pictures. Sometimes less. Granted most of those jobs are good jobs that pay my bills, but that leaves a LOT of other time. And I spend all that time hustling like crazy. Business, marketing, money management, email, relationships, strategy, more business and more marketing. And lots of social media of course. But that’s included in all of the above.
3. Art schools can’t keep up. They think they can but they can’t. This industry is changing at lightning speed. Daily, weekly, monthly, things are changing… the cameras, the software, all of it. And no university program can stay relevant at that speed. Sure, they can teach basic principles, composition, learning how to shoot in manual, etc. But in the bigger picture, most of them are behind.
I hear these statements all the time… “I learned more on your 4 hour LifeFinder DVD than I did in 4 years of college.” Or “I learned more from my KelbyOne classes than I did in 4 years of school.”
4. There is so much available online. Between KelbyOne, creativeLIVE, SkillShare and Phlearn and YouTube in general, you have infinite ways to learn the craft of photography, illustration, graphic design, etc. There’s no excuse these days not to be learning.
5. Many (I’d even bet that most) of my adult artist friends are broke or near broke. It is hard… very hard to make any kind of living as a freelance artist or musician. Sure, you can land that hit song and “make it big” but most don’t. And because they never studied money management or business or marketing, they don’t know how to survive. Their art is amazing… many of them have mastered their crafts in fact. But they’re having a hard time supporting a family.
In the end, you have to take this post with a grain of salt. I’m not saying art schools are bad. In fact, there are incredible art programs out there. I’ve spoken at many of them. My point is, don’t make the mistake that I made and all my friends made by NOT studying money, business and marketing early on.
By the way if I were you the parent, or you the student, I would start by reading this book by Dave Ramsey and Rachel Cruze, “Smart Money Smart Kids: Raising the Next Generation to Win with Money”
You can thank me in a decade.
I get emails all the time from high school students asking about what they should study, what cameras to buy, where they should go to school, etc. As I said above, I think if you’re going to go to college or your parents are going to force you to go to college, then you should really put your focus on studying all things business, marketing and especially money related.
Granted, you don’t have to choose one or the other but I would make art the lesser priority.
Why?
1. You’re going to learn how to be an artist no matter what because you’re passionate about it. You’ll figure it out. I’m seeing amazing young photographers all the time on OKDOTHIS
. I’m talking high school students and sometimes even younger. Crazy talk. It’s inspiring to see them learning lighting and photoshop out of pure passion of making great images.2. There’s never going to come a day later in your artistic career when you’ll say “Gosh, I just can’t WAIT to learn about money, business and marketing! YAY!!!” Nope, not gonna happen. So why not do that in college?
I can tell you this. As a commercial photographer, I probably spend 5-10 days a month taking pictures. Sometimes less. Granted most of those jobs are good jobs that pay my bills, but that leaves a LOT of other time. And I spend all that time hustling like crazy. Business, marketing, money management, email, relationships, strategy, more business and more marketing. And lots of social media of course. But that’s included in all of the above.
3. Art schools can’t keep up. They think they can but they can’t. This industry is changing at lightning speed. Daily, weekly, monthly, things are changing… the cameras, the software, all of it. And no university program can stay relevant at that speed. Sure, they can teach basic principles, composition, learning how to shoot in manual, etc. But in the bigger picture, most of them are behind.
I hear these statements all the time… “I learned more on your 4 hour LifeFinder DVD than I did in 4 years of college.” Or “I learned more from my KelbyOne classes than I did in 4 years of school.”
4. There is so much available online. Between KelbyOne, creativeLIVE, SkillShare and Phlearn and YouTube in general, you have infinite ways to learn the craft of photography, illustration, graphic design, etc. There’s no excuse these days not to be learning.
5. Many (I’d even bet that most) of my adult artist friends are broke or near broke. It is hard… very hard to make any kind of living as a freelance artist or musician. Sure, you can land that hit song and “make it big” but most don’t. And because they never studied money management or business or marketing, they don’t know how to survive. Their art is amazing… many of them have mastered their crafts in fact. But they’re having a hard time supporting a family.
In the end, you have to take this post with a grain of salt. I’m not saying art schools are bad. In fact, there are incredible art programs out there. I’ve spoken at many of them. My point is, don’t make the mistake that I made and all my friends made by NOT studying money, business and marketing early on.
By the way if I were you the parent, or you the student, I would start by reading this book by Dave Ramsey and Rachel Cruze, “Smart Money Smart Kids: Raising the Next Generation to Win with Money
”You can thank me in a decade.
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