Making a Life out of What You Love
“Life is something that happens to you while you’re living it.” That is how Howard Greenberg started his presentation on Tuesday night. These words are an inspiration in themselves. It gives you the feeling of comfort and satisfaction in the life you’re living. That statement is able to depict the life that Greenberg led. His life and business of work came upon him while he was just living life. It was unexpected, yet gratifying.
Howard Greenberg never intended on making a career out of photography and art. He initially went to school to become a psychologist. That’s what he was planning on doing with his life until the Vietnam War got in the way of him going to grad school. He didn’t realize his true passion for photography until his mother’s friend got him a camera while in Japan. Howard knew he “liked” photography at the time but it wasn’t until he started using the camera and taking various and multiple amounts of pictures where he realized that he actually “loved” it.
Howard Greenberg says how his love of photography, the history of it all, and also the need to make a living is what got him into the business of running a photo gallery. He mentioned how just “trying” to make it was all worth it to him. Whether he could actually make it big or not didn’t really concern him at the time. The aspect of at least attempting to follow his dream made it worthwhile. Luckily for him, he did make it big, owning a well-known photo gallery in New York City, and also being one the top photography dealers in the world.
Greenberg is a big fan on following your dream and from personal experience, he encourages all of us to “make a living out of what you love, rather than what you think you’re supposed to do.” He is an inspiration to me because he accidentally fell in love with photography and as of right now I’m not sure what I love… But now I am at least hopeful that I can be fortunate enough to stumble upon that certain something at some point, just as Greenberg did. And when I do find that certain something, I will be genuine about it because Greenberg said that nothing works better than enthusiasm. When you love what you do and you’re excited about it, the finishing product will always have a good outcome.
