It's the first day of a new year, and like every new beginning, I am super excited. This year, even more than the past.

I have spent the last 10 years working, and this is my first significant milestone. From now on, I can say “with ten years of experience”… Sounds good, doesn’t it?

I started by doing photo editing and video retouching for others. But after a while, I felt a pressing limit; I needed to create my own stories. I was tired of just “processing” others’ stories. So, I bought my first reflex camera. It was 2013.

I immediately began practicing, investing most of what I had in buying new books to study and experiment with new techniques. Within just two years, client requests were so regular that I decided to start my own business. In 2016, exactly 8 years ago, I became an independent worker.

Compared to my peers, I was much further ahead. It's pointless to be falsely modest: my ambitions were far superior to those offered by my surrounding environment.

I never chased girls, fun, or worldly pleasures. I invested everything I had in equipment, solely to improve the quality of my product. And the more I invested, the more the quality of my work grew… But with it, what I never managed to do was to increase its perceived value accordingly.

I first bought more powerful computers to be faster in deliveries.

Then camera bodies to provide higher quality and different styles. I then added professional lenses and finally accessories to offer very specific services, like macro product photography or wide angles suitable for interior architecture. I invested everything in myself and my training.

Despite this, I was highly sought after and quite well-known, but the local market did not allow me to really spread my wings. The perceived value in the city where I grew up labeled the visual marketing sector as irrelevant or superficial. So, whenever I tried to propose an innovative or “out of the box” product, I was misunderstood or rejected.

The more I improved, the more I studied, the more I achieved new results, and the more I was told “we have always done it this way, you can't change things”.

This phrase for me was a gate, rather, an insurmountable and indestructible wall. I don’t want to sound arrogant or proud, but when I heard this, it was a sign that it was time for me to change the scenery.

I worked as a photographer, social media manager, video maker, editor, content creator… but also as a creative director and special effects specialist for videos and animations, as a graphic designer.

After the first 5 years of self-employment, I was approached by a creative agency from a nearby city. I completed a couple of commissions and managed a small project, and that was enough to receive a different proposal than usual: an exclusive employment contract.

We are always taught to think about “what we want to do when we grow up,” but I realized that the most important thing is not what we want, but what we don’t want.

I enthusiastically accepted the offer from the creative agency and for a few months was trained by one of the founders to take on the role of artistic director of the same. It was 2019 and as a surprise for the following year, I received the offer for the position. The usual things: good salary, a position of power, indefinite time… Yet… I was not happy.

Every day I lost a new piece of motivation, every day I got up, went to the office, talked with clients, and obtained new contracts.

It was certainly not all for nothing, indeed, I learned a lot. But, jumping 3 years ahead, when I began to offer decentralized services, based on new technologies like virtual reality, augmented reality, NFTs, and artificial intelligence, I had to bump against that wall, more and more often.

This time, however, I approached it differently: I didn’t try to knock it down, quite the opposite. I realized that the problem wasn’t the wall, but my way of approaching it. It’s a bit of the paradox of technological singularity: how would you explain artificial intelligence to Galileo Galilei? You couldn’t. So, I did the only thing I could do: I quit the job, got up from that comfortable chair I had been sitting in for three years, and resumed my career as an independent worker.

And here I am. Another year has passed since that choice and I don’t regret anything. The opportunities are so many that often the real problem is having to discard some.

That strong and vigorous passion

for innovation, which for too long had been “sedated” by external agents, has returned.

The desire to invest, to take risks, and to feel uncomfortable in front of a new challenge, to then master it and enrich myself with new experience, has returned.

What has not returned is feeling out of place, wrong, or “too much of a dreamer” in an environment of “sleepers”. I have learned a lot over these years and what I want to conclude this reflection of the beginning of the year with is precisely this.

Never let yourself be influenced by people who do not have your life experience, your vision, or your experience. Be stubborn, bump your head against that wall over and over again but do not try to knock it down. Sometimes changing your path is not a defeat, but a strong act of courage rewarded with new adventures and lots of, lots of experience.

Here is my advice for the beginning of the year: never let yourself be influenced by those who do not share your life experience, your vision, your experience. Be stubborn, face the wall of resistance not to demolish it, but to learn from it: who built it? And why? And above all: why? Try to understand the social fabric, the market need, and above all, what value to create to do good.

Changing your path can be an act of courage that opens up new adventures and precious experiences. And it is not said that in the future I cannot go back there, where it all started, bringing with me new tools, for everyone.

In this new year, I invite you to take the courage to face the unknown. It is precisely in the heart of uncertainty that the greatest opportunities for growth lie, both professionally and personally.

Be bold, explore new horizons, and let your journey transform you, step by step, into that version of yourself that you have always dreamed of being. I am far from reaching my goals, but for the first time in my life, I am sure I am on the right path.