I know this sounds extreme. Five years is a long time. But in my experience (I’m 51 years old), I can stand behind this statement: Anything significant and worthwhile takes at least five years to develop.

I have an entire life’s worth of experience to draw from.

In 2016, I “retired” from full-time work to pursue my dream of becoming a successful fine art photographer. I owned a successful SEO company, Page One Power, that my brother and I had built for six years (another five-year story).

To get the company to the point where we could step away, we worked extremely hard. I needed a break from that. I wanted to follow my dream. I’ve always dreamed of being a full-time fine art photographer.

I wanted to work making cool photos and selling them through art galleries across the world, but I had never had the time.

So, I set to work in June 2016 to create portfolios that would be attractive enough for a gallery to sell.

I focused my time and attention on this project. I was so happy making photos and working in my darkroom. After a couple of years, I started to attend photo festivals where galleries sent representatives to meet new talent.

I showed work to potential galleries at the Palm Springs Photo Festival, Filter Festival in Chicago, AIPAD (The Association of Independent Photography Art Dealers) in New York, and others.

I met with tens of galleries and editors seeking representation of my work. Nothing came of it. Everyone was nice (well, mostly nice), but they all politely declined. Each portfolio review was a failure.

In 2019, three years into my project, I got a break. Paris Chong, from the Leica Gallery in Los Angeles, loved my Electric Downtown work. She asked if she could show it.

Yes! Of course.

We planned a show for June 2020. Then COVID happened. The show was canceled without plans to revisit. Paris stayed true to her word. I’ll be forever grateful for her trust in me.

We did the show in 2022. It was glorious! I felt so successful. Six years into my project, and I had my first major exhibition.

But few people came, and no prints were sold.

I felt happy and sad at the same time.

After the LA exhibit, I had another exhibit in Venice in the summer of 2023. I felt so international to be showing work in Europe. I sold two prints. Those sales were the most exciting thing that happened in my fine art photography life. I was thrilled.

Since then, I haven’t had any gallery exhibitions. The wheels in the art world turn slowly. I have a few opportunities on the horizon, but nothing has materialized yet.

I’ve improvised. My wife worked a deal with a local furniture store. I’ve sold almost 30 prints through that store. I built an art website with the help of Artstorefronts.com: https://www.jonballphotography.com/shop-art. I’ve sold lots of prints from my social media and website. I hope to sell 50 prints in 2025.

It’s been a long road. I’m nine years into my project, and I feel like I’m on the verge of success. But I know it’ll take a few more years.

In October, I decided to pursue my passion for writing. I’ve always loved it and have written in journals since the 1980s as a teenager. I decided that I’d write for 60 minutes every morning at 5 AM. Since I was in my 40s, I’ve routinely woken up at 4-5 AM without effort. I decided to use that quiet time to write as much as possible in an hour.

I hope for success. I want to publish books and photography and travel the world doing both. I take comfort in the knowledge that it’ll take at least five years for anything good to happen in my writing career.

What are you working on? Have you been patient enough? Do you need to adjust your expectations?

Everything you really want will take more time than you realize.

“The two most powerful warriors are patience and time.” – Leo Tolstoy

Be Patient!