Abundance or Meeting the Specs

Seth's point is well taken. In the world of design and photography there seems to be a great deal of TBR thinking. Seth's TBR stands for "Technically Beyond Reproach". It means the brochure was good enough... met the specs... what the client expected. As a photographer I was never happy with TBR. I, for the most part, always wanted to push the envelope a little further. Make the image far better than the client wanted - expected - needed. Not everytime, unfortunately, but most times for sure.

TBR is sure easy. Meet the spec. Cover your ass with layers of paper. It's as good as it needs to be. Done....

Abundance work is delivering more than what was expected. More than the client needed...even paid for. Going the extra distance to achieve something special... even if the budget couldn' totally cover it. Stretching.

Daniel and I do that with our Web sites. We are constantly looking for new ideas and stronger, more powerful ways to make the sites perform for their owners. We find it tough sometimes, fighting the "Flash" crowd and the web-clueless designers who create sites that can't help the photographer do anything but passively wait for calls to come. Been there... it doesn't work.

TBR portfolios are safe, predictable. They are 'finished'
Abundance portfolios are edgy, wild, arty and unique... and never finished.

TBR meetings deliver a smattering of information while making sure that no one is offended.
Abundance meetings mean confrontation and allegations and negotiated agreements where both sides are unhappy.

TBR is safe and secure... ass covered.
Abundance is scary and ass on the line stuff.

TBR thinking extends to the way we do marketing as well. So many photographers we talk to are still doing the 'marketing' that they did 10 years ago.
1. Buy a Sourcebook Ad
2. Send out postcards
3. Do a bit of cold-calling
4. Wait for phone to ring

Yawn.

Abundance is adding new areas of revenue, trying new things, shooting subjects you have never shot before. Ruthless editing. Showing the unexpected... while discovering the undefineable. It is creating a new portfolio of images every quarter, month... couple of weeks. It may mean redefining your portfolio...

Ass on the line stuff. That's where the wins come though... right there on the line.

Seth's Blog: "Abundance means that you spend a lot of time imagining how you will overdeliver.
TBR means you start from the beginning making sure that the work you do will either meet spec or you'll have a really good excuse.

Entrepeneurs have a hard time with the TBR approach, because it has never ever worked for them. VCs and customers and competitors give few bonus points for excuses, even really good ones, so the only approach that wins is the abundance one."