Sometimes it takes only one new idea that you get from a workshop or video to really put some ideas together in your head. I'd been shooting tabletop/food photography for a couple of years and doing quite well when I took a workshop that had someone who was incredible teaching it. It was a one day involvement, it was expensive and within the first 15 minutes I was stunned, there was something he said that put everything together that I'd been trying to do and it really, really, paid off. A close friend who was also a cinematographer was there and he looked at me near the same point and I realized he'd got it too; we were laughing at lunch, so thrilled that we couldn't wait to get back to work.
That was so long ago I cannot even remember what the actual statement was that made the difference but from that moment on, I've taken every workshop, read every book, watched every film/DVD I could afford to get with the hope of learning at least one new/usable idea from each. The result is I often get way more than that but it doesn't matter. Back then when I was really busy, ideas converted into money as quickly as did investments, often faster.
