The creative industry is a crowded and competitive market. We are always on the lookout for the next job. You already know this; However, there are two different kinds of people in this industry: individuals with an abundance mindset and individuals with a scarcity mindset. Let me explain the two.

scarcity vs abundance

A person who has the scarcity mindset is anxious and jealous of other people and their work. They break their competitors down so that they can get ahead. These people believe that there is not enough work in their market to go around and take every opportunity to get ahead in the short term. They are on a race to get to their goals.

On the contrary, individuals who possess a mindset of abundance believe that there is plenty of work to go around. They are genuinely excited to see others succeed because it encourages them that they can succeed too. These people think of their market as an unlimited expanse of possibilities. They are patient with themselves and their goals.

As cinematographers, it’s a tough industry. We don’t always know where the next paycheck will come from. That can be scary sometimes. It’s easy to fall into the scarcity mindset when things get tough. I’ll admit that I try my hardest to live with an abundant mindset, but I don’t always. I fall into the scarcity category from time to time. It was a constant struggle when I was a freelancer, but it is so important to strive for an abundance mindset.

Grow Healthy Relationships

With a scarcity mindset we see our peers and colleagues as enemies and not allies. This is no good. This industry is all about growing and nurturing healthy relationships. When we see our other cinematographers as enemies it’s hard to collaborate or create a sense of community, which everyone needs. The abundance mindset sees others as allies. When we rise together, we stand strong. A healthy community is like a stool with three legs. The scarcity mindset rejects a community in order to get ahead of everyone. That is like a one legged stool. You might be able to manage this for a little while, but it will ultimately not be sustainable. In the long term, when you tear others down you are hurting yourself by destroying relationships and potential opportunities.

A practical way to do this is by referring others for potential gigs more often. This will create healthy relationships and may perhaps prompt others to do you favors down the road as well. We aren’t always the right person for the job, so it is important to acknowledge the skills of our peers and utilize each other’s strengths. That takes a lot of humility, but something like that will be worth it in the end.

Image-Making is Subjective

There is a certain point where you can make good images. Your brain and your eye begin to grasp the concepts of cinematography more fully. When you get to this point all images are subjective, just like a painting. From time to time we get so caught up in what other people are doing. We get jealous of their projects and images, but the truth of it is, images are subjective. What you like isn’t necessarily what other people like.

Why then do we become anxious about other people’s work? The issue is we are thinking with a scarcity mindset. We think “There’s no way someone would hire me instead of them” or “I have nothing in my portfolio and they have it all.” Both of those thoughts are destructive in nature. Rather than moving forward, you get stuck on comparisons and will distract yourself from what you want to accomplish. When we can be genuinely excited about other people’s work, this opens us up to find inspiration from them. Learning from others’ successes can push us to strive for excellence instead of squelching our own creativity with self-doubt and comparisons. When you think with an abundance mindset, your response to other’s success becomes, “Anything is possible” or “I can get to that level.” This is incredibly freeing. An abundance mindset diffuses the competitive nature of film and allows you to embrace your fellow cinematographers as co-artists.

Persistence

If you are serious about being a cinematographer as your career, it is kind of like a life-long marathon. However, the scarcity mindset views everyone as sprinters who are competing for first place. Cinematography is more than just the short-term though. Ideally, it is a career that spans your whole life.

When you become impatient and think of this marathon as a sprint you become anxious and get burned out. You shouldn’t expect your career to explode in the first couple years. That isn’t how it works. Sure, some people might get lucky, but the vast majority of us will not be putting out projects like Natasha Braier early in our career. The scarcity mindset tends to cause us to think, “Why am I not getting all of the cool jobs” or “How come I don’t get to work with this camera or that client.” This discouragement may become so overwhelming that some people give up and change industries altogether.

Cinematography certainly isn’t for the faint of heart. It takes an incredible amount of patience, skills, determination, and perhaps most of all persistence. It takes years of hard work to get to the level of someone like Khalid Mohtaseb or Robert Richardson ASC. There is no shortcut for that. The abundance mindset thinks like this: “I know I am not at the same level as Khalid, career-wise, but I can get there someday because he has.” We are all at different stages in our careers. I wish I was working at the level of Patrick O’Sullivan, but I try to not let myself get down about that. He has been doing this for much longer than me. My persistent hope is that, with enough time and experience, I too can reach that level.