The cost of business with your dream
Just yesterday, I bought a new camera: a Fujifilm XT3. I’ve wanted to get my hands on a Fuji camera for years, and finally it felt like the right time. Was it a critically necessary purchase? No. Could I have continued to work without it? Absolutely.
But instead, I chose to invest.
Constant mental back-and-forth and second guessing over investing in my craft is something that I’ve continually struggled with since I decided to start Pics by Eli in 2022. Back then, it was paying $600 as a college sophomore for a used camera body to call my own—a Canon 5D Mark III. What an investment!
That camera has now helped me deliver thousands of dollars in deliverables to clients and is still one of my daily-use pieces of kit. Who knows where I would be without it?
One of the reasons I struggle spending is that I’m from a financially risk-averse family, and fairly so. Both my parents are public school teachers working in one of the lowest salaried states in the entire county for their position. Raising me and my three siblings over 20 years and beating a 6-year cancer battle with my youngest brother Seth to boot has meant that I’ve lived through some tough money times. I credit them a lot with keeping life as normal as possible, and I appreciate the value that it brings. Money is precious to us. Always has been.
Even from a young age, I spent countless hours researching and planning purchases. From things as mundane as a curtain rod to my college laptop choice, dilly-dallying over whether or not to buy one versus the other is one of my superpowers. My irrational anxiety likes to creep in when dealing with money, telling me the million ways this purchase can go wrong and that it’s not a good idea.
My anxiety is usually wrong.
As an adult, I’ve quickly come to realize that anxiety with money in healthy amounts keeps me from making rash purchases, even thought that’s never really been my style anyway. But what it keeps me from is betting on myself, backing my future self to make good on the investment being made in the now.
Since 2026 started, I’ve invested significantly in business upgrades. A new work laptop with all the bells and whistles and now this new camera. I’ve almost doubled the amount I’ve spent in the past three years in one month.
Exactly 3 hours after I decided mentally that I would buy this new camera, my dad came up to me and said that one of his coworkers was looking for someone to do a large video project for her organization and was wondering if I did contract work. Of course, I accepted the job and that paycheck will cover over 80% of the cost of the new camera.
And this isn’t the only time this has happened.
Two weeks ago, the literal day after I bought my new laptop, I had a parent reach out to me asking about a quote for a long-term video project for her kids. We worked out a number and I booked that gig too.
Both times in the past three weeks after I decided to make significant investment, jobs have come to help offset the cost. As a believer, I take that as a sign from God that these decisions were the right ones to make.
Forwarding my business requires risk, and sacrifice. I keep learning that these leaps of faith are pivotal to my growth as a creator and artist. Probably no more big purchases for a while, but the start of 2026 has felt very blessed indeed!
