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Succeeding as a model

You might think that looking good and getting signed up with an agency is all it takes to be a successful model. Not quite true.

Modelling involves quite a lot of effort (although the rewards can be great), and it takes a specific personality to fully succeed. All things considered – there are three things a successful model needs to do:

• Always look good, perform well and adapt to client deeds – basically you have to deliver the look the client needs; to some part this is ability, to some part, this can be learned

• Make the life of your client easy – don’t come late, be professional, follow photographer’s directions, be friendly and easygoing; nobody wants to work with a b****

• Run your career as a business enterprise; you need to balance the professional spending and lifestyle expenses against the revenues you have, you need to organize your schedules, market and sell your looks – a good agency will support you, but a lot of hard work needs to be done by yourself

Before getting started, give a thought to those above three things – can you manage this on constant basis? It takes just a few mess-ups to seriously damage your career.

It helps if you have at least some of the following traits:

• Stamina – the travel, the shoots and shows – all of this can get really hectic; for example can you manage a 14 hour photoshoot and still look your best at the end of the day? Because you will have to!

• Extroverted personality – it is a people business after all – you will need to interact, socialize, network and sell yourself all the time.

• Show off – you really need to enjoy the attention of other people and posing in front of the camera, because this is what you will be doing all the time!

• Good self esteem – during your career you will get a lot of rejections, you might not always be what the client is looking for, the other models will do and say things behind your back – can you bounce back after a failure? Repeatedly? All the time? If not, don’t try to get into this business!

• Ambition – you must have a lot of ambition and desire to succeed, as this is one of things which will finally keep you going in the end.

• Organized – you need to be a self starter and well organized – you can’t be the type who puts things off for next day when things have to be done, appointments organized, fitness and health schedule followed, etc

You could still make it in the modelling without the above traits – but the chances of success are lower, and more important – you might not enjoy the work. There are thousands of people starting in modelling and then dropping out soon after they start – it’s not that they don’t have the right looks – they do. But they just cannot take the pressure and end up doing something else. And many others just burn out, start drinking or using drugs, or even end up providing escort services when the jobs become far in between and the money becomes scarce.

So before jumping into this business, give it a lot of consideration – make sure you have the support of friends and family, especially if you are under 18. An alternative is to do modelling only part time, but at some point you will have to make a decision about what you really want to do.

Also, you need to think about the options you will have once your career ends (and it will end earlier than many other careers). Do you have an education or trade you can fall back on? Can you then start your own business? Or have you perhaps hit it big time and built up enough savings by then, to not worry about financial matter any more? (The chances of this last thing happening are quite slim, though)

Those warnings aside, a modelling career still has many benefits for young people just starting out. It can be a lot of fun, especially if you are outgoing (which you should be), the money can be pretty good even early on, you get to travel and see the world and you learn to manage yourself and your business. Even though you might have to deal with some difficult people along the way, the experiences will be useful in any other career afterwards.

And as final words – it always helps to have the support of others in this business and that of close family. It’s a tough business, but do make some friends, build up a network of contacts and enjoy the photo sessions!

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