Go Big Or Go Home

If we’ve heard it once, we heard it 1000 times. It’s so cliche that it’s even cliche to say it’s cliche! We heard some version of it from our little league coaches. We heard it from our parents 100 times growing up. It comes in various forms.

“You get back what you put in.”

“Go for the gusto.”

“No risk. No reward.”

You get it. “Go big or go home.” It’s been burned into our minds by well-meaning mentors and guiding figures throughout our lives who wanted us to push ourselves beyond we thought we were capable of doing. For us, it has been one of those sayings that motivates you to get moving in the moment but slowly dies off in a short time. It has been the “Rocky” theme song to get us off of our mental couch and back into the action. It has been the shot of adrenaline we needed in that split second. And we would be lying if we said it didn’t help! We needed that kick in the pants!

But you know what we didn’t do? We didn’t apply the “go big or go home” principle to our business. We played it safe. And hey guys, it’s scary! We took a leap of faith to get this business going! We quit our jobs! That’s scary!!! But it also gave us a false sense that we were really going for everything when we weren’t. We were holding back. We didn’t want to stick our necks out too far and risk damaging the seemingly paper-thin life we were building.

It took another wedding vendor’s perspective and a styled shoot to change our outlook.

In January, we had a vision. Or, we thought we had a vision. We wanted to do our first-ever styled shoot. And since it was our first one, we thought we would start small. An innocent thought. But a thought that betrayed our sense of “holding back.” Shortly into the process, we added a planner to the team (the girls at Upstate I Do are AMAZING planners so totally check them out!). They gave us a fresh perspective. And when we say fresh perspective, we actually mean they totally changed everything we ever thought was possible and pushed us out of our comfort zone immediately!

We hate to admit it, but we were thinking we might just get bride and groom models, order a bouquet, rent a tux and a dress for the day and go for it. This was going to be our first one after all! But what we ended up with was so much more than we ever imagined possible. If you haven’t seen the final result, you can see it here. This styled shoot, our first ever, was published on one of the top 5 wedding blogs in the nation! We say that NOT as any praise to ourselves, but as a forever rebuke to us.

We dreamed small. We did.

We wanted to play it safe. But playing it safe doesn’t push anyone’s limits. Taking the easy road never made anyone better. It wasn’t until someone else came along, kicked us in the pants and said “go big or go home” that we dared to dream bigger!

Was it easy? No. Quite the opposite. We faced challenges with the styled shoot that we had never faced before.

Was it comfortable? It was a hot seat unlike any we had felt before.

But was it worth it? Ohhh yes! The end result was worth every ounce of energy, pain and sweat. The results were not limited to the published feature. We got to meet and work with new people that we wouldn’t have had we done it our way. The images from this styled shoot are now some of the best images in our portfolio.

The bottom line is this. Whatever you are doing today, go all out! Maybe you have dreams to run your own business but right now you are sitting behind a desk. Let us be the ones to give you the kick in the pants you need. Go after it! You never know what you can accomplish until you put your all into it. Maybe you are a new photographer and you are afraid to try new things because you don’t think you are good enough. Well we believe in you. We were there not so very long ago. Put your passion into what you do and work hard. You will find yourself in a much different place a year from now.

Wherever you find yourself today, don’t dream small. Don’t be so realistic that you can’t let your imagination fly you way beyond the realm of possibility. Because you don’t know what you are truly capable of until you push yourself beyond your comfort zone and dream big.

Shoot for the moon. Make this a day you look back on a year from now as the day you turned the corner and pursued what you never thought possible.

Go big or go home.

If you enjoyed this post you might also enjoy 3 Things We Learned From Losing $2000 or Finger Posts On The Road To Success!