What happened to work ethic and finding a way to make it? Champions find a way, losers find excuses! What are you?
I’m writing to you today because I want to share my thoughts on work ethic and what it takes to have a shot at “success”.
Nobody goes out in the world and does it all without the help of others. You have a support team, e.g. your parents, and / or you collaborate with other “professionals” to achieve your goals.
From experience I can say that collaborations only work in the long run if people involved have a similar work ethic. How they do things. Otherwise there will be problems and I don’t like to have issues in my life any more.
Due to my background growing up in the POTT in Germany, studying & working in the US and previous work experience with professional athletes, I’m used to working result oriented.
Following the motto: “Champions find a way, losers find excuses”.
My Road To The Top In Sports
After I was done with high school & mandatory military service I went to NYC by myself to live & study. Even though my English was awful I studied hard.
After 2 semesters I received a scholarship due to my academic accomplishments as a foreign student for my entire Bachelor’s degree in International Marketing at Baruch College in NYC.
Working At MTV
Subsequent to finishing my Bachelors I started working at MTV at 1515 Broadway on the 42nd floor in the International Marketing Research department.
After a few months working there I realized that cubicle life (working in a cubicle at work) wasn’t for me. I preferred to work with people and quit my job at MTV.
At the same time, my college tennis coach invited me to run a tennis summer camp for rich kids in Brighton, England, that summer with him.
While running the tennis summer camp I applied for jobs in tennis and received an invitation for a personal meeting but the job interview was in Miami, Florida.
I asked the Director of Tennis in Miami if I could postpone the job interview for 2 weeks because I was working at the moment in England.
I was told that the position would not be available anymore in 2 weeks. So I asked my college coach if it was ok if I leave immediately for the job interview in Miami. He agreed and I left 2 days later flying to Miami for my job interview.
I did the job interview, practical part playing tennis and theoretical part with Human Resources (HR). While waiting for a response from HR I stayed at a hotel in Miami.
Working At Fairmont Turnberry Isle Resort & Club
Since I didn’t get a response within 12 days I called the Director of Tennis, Fred Stolle, former Australian tennis pro winning 19 GRAND SLAMS. I asked him if he had some news for me, one way or another, because I’m staying at a hotel which isn’t cheap.
Two days later I received the call and they offered me the position. Later on I found out that 397 people applied for that position from all over the world but Fred offered me the job because he liked my work ethic and attitude.
I was working full time (50 hours/week) on average doing sports, not sitting at a desk!
Without paid overtime, of course, as the Head Tennis Professional at a 5 star hotel resort & country club in Miami I started the Master’s Program for Sports Science at Florida International University (FIU) FULL TIME, meaning 12 credits minimum, = 4 classes.
While working at the hotel full time, with 2 weeks paid vacation/year, on weekends and holidays for 3 years, I became a full time student in a Master’s program that was UNRELATED to my Bachelors.
After 3 years I was LAID OFF (not fired) due to extensive hotel renovations, including the tennis facility.
Working At Florida International University (FIU)
Simultaneously I applied for the position of “Graduate Assistant” in Strength & Conditioning at FIU. My shift as Graduate Assistant, doing strength & conditioning by myself for 3 FIU sports teams + assisting 2 more teams, was 6:00 to 18:00 Monday through Friday.
My classes as a graduate student were from 18:25 to 21:00 Monday through Friday.
Driving one way from my home to FIU was approximately 60 minutes from Aventura, which means I left home at 5:00 in the morning and returned at 22:00.
After my time as Graduate Assistant I was offered the position of Assistant Strength & Conditioning Coach at FIU by my boss, Mick Smith, who was 15 years in the NBA as a Head Strength & Conditioning Coach.
He liked my work ethic and I got the job out of over 500 applicants! During my time at FIU my teams achieved school & conference records and I was invited by Mick to help him train NBA players like Antoine Walker, Dwayne Wade or Alonzo Morning.
Working With Alexander Ritschard
A year later I was hired by the Junior Swiss National Tennis Champion, Alexander Ritschard, as his coach. He was 14 at the time.
After working with him for 2 years and winning numerous titles he was one out of 5 junior tennis players WORLDWIDE with an ATP ranking and achieved an ATP junior ranking of 65.
If you are interested read more about Coaching On The ATP Tour – My Memoirs.
At age 17 he was #642 in the world of men’s tennis, the real world. He was offered a FULL scholarship at UvA (University of Virginia in Charlottesville).
During that time they won 3 consecutive NCAA Division 1 National titles, which has never been done before, and I worked for him & the team during that time.
As an adult he reached an ATP ranking of top 100 in the world. Do you know anybody top 100 in the world in anything?
Swiss Tennis
Since Alexander was the Juniors Swiss National Champion, we were invited to train with the best Swiss tennis players. Roger Federer & Stan Wawrinka were number 1 and 5 in the world at the time.
In addition I met their coaches and that also included Martina Hingis and her team. She was also #1 in the world.
In the world of professional sports that I was in, a mirror image of the real world out there, you had to find a way to deliver results or you were out.
It didn’t matter if the airline lost our luggage, or if there was a party in the hotel room next door until 5:00, or if he had stress with his girlfriend or whatever.
I knew that if my player loses 5x in a row in the 1st round I’m fired, no matter what.
This is what I’m used to in the real world on the “free market”. I know that anything less will not lead to any “success” in anything that I’m doing. Doesn’t matter if it is coaching or photography.
That means I need to surround myself and work with like minded individuals. At the same time I understand and respect that people have different ways of doing things.
On the other hand, I know what I need and what works for me.
I’m saying all this because I want you to understand where I’m coming from and what my expectations are professionally.
Working As A Professional Photographer
From what I have observed over the years working as a photographer at TV stations and also recently at photoshoots in Europe & USA I can say that I like many “professionals” (artists & models) on a personal level.
Generally speaking, there are two groups of professionals. On the one hand you have the “structured” professional who works goal-oriented and gets the job done as planned.
On the other hand you have the “free spirit” professional who is more laissez-faire and somehow finds a way to get something done.
When it comes to working with artists and models on a professional level I also observed that I don’t mesh well with the “free spirits”.
Structured VS. Free Spirit
I’m more “structured”, following a plan to achieve a desired outcome, and that works for me. I’m saying this without “judgement”, meaning being “structured” is not better than being a “free spirit” or vice versa, yet we are different.
This difference in approaching things becomes problematic to me when it messes with my work. Let’s take one of my last professional level photoshoots as an example.
I invested 20+ hours on pre-production work, which also includes securing wardrobe from wardrobe sponsors.
Because of the fact that they sponsor us the wardrobe they have expectations with regards to receiving pictures of a certain quality. In other words, they scratch our back and we scratch theirs.
Because the model arrived 2 hours late to the photoshoot for whatever reason we didn’t get all the shots we needed to get for our sponsors. Now the model left me with 2 options:
- I call our sponsors and tell them some excuse of why we don’t have pictures and wasted their and our money, time & effort
- I organize a 2nd photoshoot where I shoot all the looks I didn’t get to shoot during our photoshoot
Which option do you think applies to me?
Work Ethic: Conclusion
Unfortunately most professionals nowadays, especially in rich nations like Germany or USA, don’t know what that it means to find a way.
They are used to the government providing for them in one way or another. If they can’t provide for themselves or find somebody else to use or blame they can’t feel good about themselves.
Or it’s a generational issue? I’m not sure. Are people living in their bubble? Don’t they truly understand how difficult it is to maintain a state of financial security over a lifetime?
For my parent’s and grand parent’s generations it wasn’t unusual to work 25 years for the same company and retire with something.
Competition Is Tough
Those days are over and competition is tough out there for people on the open market. Especially when the market is changing significantly.
Some professionals cannot survive in the real world on the open market. They believe they need to be treated like an endangered species. Instead of finding excuses it might be a better idea to examine the status quo.
Remember, “Champions find a way, losers find excuses!”
For example, have you done your job well? Is your answer based on your opinion or any objective facts, like numbers (how much did your picture sell)?
Did you evolve and do you have a high quality portfolio showing your range of work? Can you produce on a very high level consistently?
How difficult was it to create and photograph the looks in your portfolio? Are they in demand or do they look like 100 other studio shots?
You have to put in the time and effort and pursue the opportunities that are coming your way when you develop your skills and step outside your comfort zone.
Yet this still doesn’t guarantee you any stability. The state of financial security is never stable.
Many things can happen, without any wrong doing on your part, and you go from being somebody to nobody. Sure there is the pandemic or a war but you also could get sick or hurt in an accident.
Work Ethic: Who Are You?
But how you carry yourself, how you go about life has some importance. Showing up on-time doesn’t require any superpowers.
It’s simply a matter of respect, to yourself and others in your profession. Then you do your job the entire time as is expected of a professional.
That’s it. It’s not that complicated yet it is. It has become more and more difficult to work with true professionals. People who can show up on-time. Do their job swiftly with a purpose. Pay attention to detail the entire time and hence get the job done well.
Does your work still look good without Photoshop? Or does a retoucher need to spend hours fixing your mistakes because you were too busy staring into your phone on set?
All I Hear Are Excuses
I constantly hear excuses for why they couldn’t show up on-time. Or why they could not replicate the moldboard look or why they didn’t do their job.
At least 4x/month I’m told somebody needed to be rushed to the hospital, covid related or not.
It’s usually the child or spouse / significant other. Am I suppose to believe that stuff and be empathetic? Really?
Are you going to tell the client why they don’t get what they paid for? Would you care if you were the client?
Remember the previous saying: “Champions find a way, losers find excuses”? What do you think you are?
Rarely ever do I hear solutions or observe somebody doing their job attentively and understanding the big picture nowadays.
They are part of the team and the end result can be observed in the pictures for everybody to judge and react too.
You know they take a certain pride in their job.
The hair stylist recognizes when the hair style is out of place because the model moved or touched her head. The wardrobe stylist sees when the clothes are wrinkled or the collar is up and the jewelry is covered.
You don’t have to tell them to put their phone down and come in to fix or touch up the makeup. Or that they need to be extremely careful with the wardrobe so they don’t smear on makeup or tear off any tags.
And of course you treat the team like human beings and provide food & drinks.
What happened to work ethic? Do these people still exist?
What Happened to Work Ethic Credits
Photographer: Phil Halfmann
Creative Director: Sophia Lenore
Wardrobe Stylist: Sophia Lenore
Hair Stylist: Simone Hylton
Makeup Artists: Aida Greenidge-Gopie
Models: Jovona Logan & Lola Chel
Wardrobe by Tanya Marie
