Fear

[gr82bart]

Someone else's post got me thinking (me + thinking + boredom = polls!). Which are you more afraid of - failure or success? Fear of failure is pretty self explanatory. Pretty common, I would say. But I believe some are afraid of success and I am thinking it's more common than not.

Regards, Art.

 

[SuzanneR]

Oddly enough, whenever I start to feel successful with something, my stomach gets into knots, and I feel out of sorts... failures on the other hand... I just try to learn from. Clearly, I've had more experience with the latter, it would seem.

 

[jovo]

For me, photography is usually done without fear. The simple reason is that, compared to music performance where "in the moment" can be utterly treacherous, once I've printed a photograph as well as I can, it's "safe". If no one likes it, that's a disappointment, but not a cause to be afraid. It's not going to be less good, or better tomorrow, and I can evaluate it as a constant and learn from it. Decades ago, however, the music conservatory experience for a lot of us often equated our musical accomplishment with our self worth. Everyone was developing the same repertoire, and comparisons were unavoidable, and often severe. No matter how well one prepared, fear, and even dread of flubbing a passage or playing out of tune made the performance experience a daunting and perilous one. On the other hand, doing well brought a more intense sense of joy and satisfaction that an appreciative and emotional response had been generated. A well received photograph is a happy thing as well, but for me it's a more temperate experience.

 

[RPippin]

Fear of what...

The thing I fear the most is not success or the lack of it, but the fear of being somehow fraudulant. Is the effort I make to produce good photographs, or the effort to become a good craftsman in the darkroom worthy? By this I mean, are my motives simple and honest or do I really aspire for some recognition for something more noble than I could ever produce. My decision to emerse myself in the study of photography crosses over into all the other aspects of my life. It takes time and energy away from my work, my family, and somethimes from my financial responsiblities. Is my drive just the marriage of obseseve compulsion and selfish wants, do I hide a bad motive under a good one? The need, or desire, to produce something creative and capture something on film that conveyes a personal relationship I feel with a portrait or landscape sometimes feels like a double edged sword. I somehow will expose myself for all the world to see. Scarry sometimes. The only cure is the poison. I'm going back in the darkroom...

 

[papagene]

Fear of failure is easier to handle than fear of success. Success means leaving your comfort zone and that of your family. It means pulling up steaks and leaving family and friends behind, venturing into the unknown without your built in safety net. Taking chances with unknown consequences and ramifications.
With failure you just fall back into the same old same old. You already know how to handle that. But with success, it's a whole new world that you have to deal with.
I think success is easier to deal with if you are single with no other responsibilities. But with a family, a very young family at that... do I force them to pull up roots every year in search of the holy grail of a tenured teaching job? Do I put my goals aside to make sure theirs are more attainable? My girls are doing great and I am very proud of them.
Wow, what a question on the eve of Father's Day!!!! Gee, thanks Art!!!

gene

 

[Robert Brummitt]

Actually there should have been a fourth voting poll, the "I don't care because I pursue my photography because I like it". That is where I would fit myself in.

 

[Ian Leake]

I ticked fear of failure, but after a little thought I've changed my mind. I don't enjoy failing but I don't fear it. Failing is one of the best ways of learning - try something new, fail at it, work out what you should have done, and then do it again. I'm not afraid of success either - success is a great feeling, especially when preceded by lots of failures!

Everyone should regularly do something that's outside their comfort zone. Sometimes you'll realise that it wasn't the right thing to do, but in the vast majority of times you discover something new, learn more about yourself and the rest of the world, and develop new abilities.

 

[k_jupiter]

Art-son.
Within my work environment (robotics engineering), I am fearless because I know whether I can do something or I can't. When challenged, I rise to the occasion and just do it. Perhaps I am in the wrong field where I am not challenged enough?

In photography, I have had no failures. I also have not challenged myself against others expectations in a very long time. When I was a graphics art tech, I just did it, people liked and or respected my work. My portfolio has always spoken for itself, you either like it or you don't. The few paying photographic jobs I have had, are simply extensions of my known body of work.

My work these days is ONLY for myself. I share with few people.

So decide... am I just lazy and refuse to enter the arena of competition, or am I so well grounded that your opinion, the universal your, matters not?

tim in san jose

 

[Ed Sukach]

Fear of failure is easier to handle than fear of success. Success means leaving your comfort zone and that of your family. It means pulling up steaks and leaving family and friends behind, venturing into the unknown without your built in safety net. Taking chances with unknown consequences and ramifications.

I agree - !!

 

[Sparky]

I don't really know about that - I think it's kind of 'in vogue' to talk about 'fear of success' these days - I suspect that what MOST people mean by this is, in fact, fear of failure... it's a fear of SOME success, and then like icarus, falling to the ground... (getting one's hopes up)... or am I just 'not getting it'...?

 

[Alex Hawley]

One shouldn't be afraid of either. Claiming fear of success often becomes an excuse for not doing anything, or not learning from mistakes. Fear of failure can be used the same way. If one never does anything, and justifies it by claiming fear of failure or success, then one has the perfect excuse for not doing anything and its well justified.

 

[JBrunner]

I have no fear. Not the testosterone driven kind of "no fear", but rather the kind that requires no energy to maintain.

The old experienced kind of no fear. Success? Failure? Same thing. Different day. Nobody under forty will get this, probably.

 

[jstraw]

I tend to be a wuss about really investing myself in any of my creative pursuits. It's as though if I hold back and don't really commit, it spares me from ever finding out if I am or could be any damned good. If I stay a dilettante, repeatedly drifting away from my pursuits every time I get any momentum going, the lack of investment becomes a convenient excuse for limited success. I don't risk finding out if perhaps I'm just untalented. What exactly that's a fear of is a bit slippery...probably failure.

 

[Sparky]

I think we all feel that way most of the time, J. Why do you think we all spend so much damn time talking about stupid gear stuff...??

 

[jordanstarr]

When I read this thread I think of the Charles Bukowski poem Nothing But A Scarf, which is about a literary writer who dwells too much on success. The final line is "ever so long ago, after reading one of his short stories, after dropping the magazine to the floor, I though, Jesus Christ, if this is what they want, from now on I might as well write for the rats and the spiders and the air and just for myself. which, of course, is exactly what I did.".
I've seen it in the music of the bands I've shot over the years who once filled me with inspiration now leave me empty with disappointment. We've all heard the stories of those who have had their art suffer from success (even Bukowski was criticized of this once his work started to sell, although I don't personally buy into the theories). It makes me glad I chose not to go to art school and maintain my independence from being a "successful artist" or the persuit thereof. However, we all like to flirt with the concept of success, hense why we post photos instead of keeping them in a box and hidden from the world.

 

[Stephen Frizza]

im fearless, shit i launched an analog lab in a digital age when everyone else is folding LOL, hmm maybe im not fearless maybe im stupid hehehe......

 

[Annie]

Fear is a choice... never choose fear.

 

[arigram]

“I hope for nothing. I fear nothing. I am free.”
Nikos Kazantzakis

As for me, I am a yellow chicken...

 

[Black Dog]

"If you can meet with truimph and disaster, and treat those two imposters just the same, yours is the world and everything in it"-Rudyard Kipling.

 

[catem]

Is 'fear' the same as 'worry'?

"I ..... have known a great many troubles, but most of them never happened."

(Mark Twain)

When I begin to worry about things like 'success' or 'failure' I know I'm taking myself too seriously. Not that I'm not serious about what I do - but there's a difference and worry/fear gets you nowhere (even if it is 'normal'). Though that doesn't mean I'm 'fearless' either. So I haven't ticked anything

 

[colrehogan]

One shouldn't be afraid of either. Claiming fear of success often becomes an excuse for not doing anything, or not learning from mistakes. Fear of failure can be used the same way. If one never does anything, and justifies it by claiming fear of failure or success, then one has the perfect excuse for not doing anything and its well justified.

Well said, Alex!

 

[Michel Hardy-Vallée]

I fear certain things, but neither failure or success are among them.

I'm a little bit on the pessimistic side, so failure is not a foreign thing, and success instead feels like a reward, something that reconciles me with the brighter side of life.

If there's anything clear I fear, it's rather being stuck. Stuck in a hole because of a mistake, or of a lack of opportunities. Or stuck in an endless loop of responsibilities, with no space to breathe and to live properly. Both situations can occur because of success and failure.

 

[Dan Fromm]

I fear only that the sky will fall on my head.

 

[keithwms]

The thing I fear the most is not success or the lack of it, but the fear of being somehow fraudulant. Is the effort I make to produce good photographs, or the effort to become a good craftsman in the darkroom worthy? By this I mean, are my motives simple and honest or do I really aspire for some recognition for something more noble than I could ever produce. My decision to emerse myself in the study of photography crosses over into all the other aspects of my life. It takes time and energy away from my work, my family, and somethimes from my financial responsiblities. Is my drive just the marriage of obseseve compulsion and selfish wants, do I hide a bad motive under a good one? The need, or desire, to produce something creative and capture something on film that conveyes a personal relationship I feel with a portrait or landscape sometimes feels like a double edged sword. I somehow will expose myself for all the world to see. Scarry sometimes. The only cure is the poison. I'm going back in the darkroom...

Well said. Nothing wrong with a little darkroom escapism, Richard Anyway, I think that there is nothing remotely fraudulent about seeking out new ways to express ideas.

I know you well enough to say this: you are a sincere photographer with a deepening interest in the subjects you see. There is not even the slightest hint of fraud in your motives. Banish that thought!

I think all of us know the tendency to think that one Great Photograph is going to resonate with the masses and make us famous and appreciated; it's quite normal to have such aspirations. But I think we just need to learn how to appreciate the photographic process itself.

What do I fear? Losing my ability to do photography, or to play music, or to do the work I love. In other words going blind or deaf or contracting some nasty disease! On that scale, whatever fears I have about how my photography will be received are rather miniscule. It's nice to get an attaboy now and then...

 

[Shmoo]

My only fear is not having enough time...