I see it quite a bit within our industry. A model is selected for a magazine cover, feature or even a commercial project. They proudly share it with their audience and receive a bevy of support in the form of likes and comments. What they are not privy to is the comments which occur behind their backs or away from their ears.
“Why would they get the cover?”
“What do they have that makes them special enough to be featured?”
“I don’t understand why a client would pick them to do this job.”
It is the resentment of success. As many entrepreneurs or solopreneurs can attest to – no one seems to pay much attention to you (good or bad) until you start to mass some level of success. Then once you do, that is when the resentment arrives.
I had it when I started growing my photography business.
Why would you hire James for that project?
Are you sure you want James and his work to represent you and what you do?
It was always a bit crushing to hear things like what when it did get back to me. But at the same time it also added a bit of fire to my engine.
I am unsure when the resentment of success became to prevalent in our business. I remember as a kid we used to admire success. Even growing up as a young adult there was an admiration of those who achieved something more for themselves. But over the last ten years or so that has faded.
Perhaps it is partially a result of us oversharing our success – or oversharing what really is not success but we want people to believe it is through our social media channels. Maybe we now just tune out others’ success.
Regardless – the resentment of success is a deteriorating facet of what we do and it is something we should give attention to reversing before it progresses into something even worse.
James Patrick
IG @jpatrickphoto
