The View From the Penthouse

At first success meant getting clients.

Then it meant answering more emails.

Then being available more often.

Then bigger projects.

Then managing more complexity.

I had access to things a lot of photographers dream about:

And yet, one day I found myself saying to my client,

"I don't actually want to spend my life photographing luxury homes."

Most people would never admit that.

Because we're taught that success is a ladder.

Small house.

Bigger house.

Luxury house.

Magazine.

National publication.

The thing that looked like the next level came with a completely different set of tradeoffs.

Luxury homes were beautiful.

The projects were impressive.

The pay was often excellent.

But the work was different.

More revisions.

More meetings.

More proposal writings.

More people involved.

More perfection.

More back and forth.

The friction increased alongside the prestige.

Meanwhile, many of the smaller homes were straightforward.

The expectations were clear.

The work was enjoyable.

The delivery was simple.

I started realizing that I wasn't chasing luxury.

I was chasing a feeling of simplicity.

The luxury homes looked more impressive from the outside.

But the smaller projects fit the life I actually wanted to be living.

That realization changed how I think about success.

The next level isn't automatically better.

It's different.

And sometimes the view from the top helps you realize you were looking for something else entirely.

KERRY HOWELL