Philadelphia Portrait & Pet Photographer | April Ziegler Photography

Our next monthly book to read for our business book club is Crush it! by Gary Vaynerchuk. You can see last month’s book review HERE!

I will admit that I didn’t actually read this book. I listened to it. An audiobook totally counts, right?

Rating:

Review:

This book was largely about how to take something that you’re passionate about and turn it into your business. There were parts where he talked about work not feeling like work if it’s your passion. And I agree with that, to a point. He mentioned that you will have to work hard, and told stories of people who worked until 3am and got up at 6am. It’s true, starting a business takes a lot of work and I too ran on little sleep when I first started. But working like that is a quick way to burn out. Believe me, I’ve lived it. Hard work is definitely necessary, but so is balance. Like Tina mentioned in her book review, I don’t think that a successful business can be run on passion alone. While passion is an important foundation, there is so much more required to start and run a business. A big part of the book was the importance of being able to adapt. I think this is huge in the photography business… not just related to photography alone, but also in the way that you market your business.

I really enjoyed Gary’s writing (speaking) style… It was really energetic and motivational. And it was interesting to hear from someone who has actually turned something that he’s passionate about into a very successful business.

Also, I’ve learned that audiobooks are not my cup of tea. I love reading. And I thought that being able to listen to this book would make it easier for me to get through it. I could listen to it while I’m working! But I can’t. When I work, I get in a zone and I found myself having to rewind many parts of the book. So I really listened to this book about three times but probably didn’t absorb as much as I would have had I read it once. Lesson learned.

Recommend?:

While I think this was a good book, I feel like there are more up-to-date books that would be relevant and helpful. A lot of the social media information is outdated, even though it was only written in 2009.