What separates you and Thomas Whiteside who has shot Michelle Obama and multiple Vogue covers?
Often, the biggest difference between you and your favorite creative professional is simply a matter of time.

When you look through the most influential or the most followed photographers, or world-class designers, you see where they are, but miss where they began.

We tend to forget that their achievements is a mass of humbling beginnings, countless hours of work and a mixture of failures.

That’s exactly why Jon Acuff once wrote,
“Don’t compare your beginning to someone else’s middle.”

Imagine if you could find Whiteside’s portfolio from his 2nd year of being a professional photographer.
I’m not saying everyone will or should become Whiteside. Maybe shooting celebrities and doing commercial work is not your thing at all.

Just because a thing can be measured or compared doesn’t mean it’s important, or even relevant.

What if you were to decide what’s important, what needs to change, what’s worth accomplishing, to you?

In the words of Seth Godin:
“Ignore all comparisons that don’t relate. The most important comparison, in fact, is comparing your work to what you’re capable of.”

Go ahead, compare. But compare the things that matter to the journey you’re on. Ignore the rest.

George Kroustallis // Minorstep