Do You Know the Price to Become a Model?

Do You Know the Price to Become a Model?
Every dream has a price, and if your dream is to become a model, you should know that from the beginning.

A common fallacy for many people who aren't involved in the business is that they think that modeling is some kind of a free ride. To the outsider's mind, they assume that anyone who succeeds as a model has simply had the good fortune to be born tall, thin and beautiful, and then all they have to do is just "show up".

This is probably the number one myth about modeling and it couldn't be further from the truth.

Modeling is not a hobby and it's not even a job. Modeling, the kind of modeling I'm talking about, is a profession. And as with all professions, there are standards of excellence and definite steps to success.

Are you willing to pay the price required of you to become a model? And do you know what that price is for you?

It will be different for everyone of course. But at the top of the list would be the dedication to living an extremely healthy lifestyle.

A healthy lifestyle means regular exercise, getting enough sleep and eating properly. It does not mean starving yourself, and it does mean nourishing yourself in a balanced way.

It means keeping your body at its most fit. It also means no smoking. And alcohol on rare occasions, if ever. And it goes without saying that drugs have absolutely no place in a healthy body and a healthy mind.

If you're not currently living a very healthy lifestyle, you're going to have to seriously ask yourself just how much you want this dream, because it is definitely one of the first prices you'll be expected to pay.

Your entry price may also include working your way up the career ladder, accepting less glamorous work in exchange for developing a portfolio that will later get you better jobs.

While your friends back home are doing normal teenage things like hanging out at the beach or the mall, you'll be on castings, beating the pavement, often with aching feet and a bruised ego.

You may even be the subject of ridicule from people, and sometimes from the people closest to you or from those you want to please the most.

You'll probably have to wrestle with your own self-doubts and discouragement at times. And even when you're feeling at your lowest, you're going to have to do casting after casting, each and every time with renewed enthusiasm and energy.

You'll have to get up brutally early while people are coming at you from all sides, fixing your hair, doing your makeup, having you try on the clothes-all before the sun's up.

You might be wearing a ski suit in sweltering heat or a bikini on the beach in December. You may be holding the same uncomfortable pose over and over under hot lights, or doing a runway show in shoes so tight they'll stop your circulation.

And whatever it is, you've got to make it new and alive and fantastic every time for your clients.

All of this demands an enormous amount of self-discipline and dedication to your goal. If you don't have it you won't make it as a model over the long term, and especially not at the higher end of this business. It's just that simple.

But if you're willing to pay the price asked of you in exchange for reaching your dream you may soon discover something very important: The price you paid was actually very small indeed compared with the reward.

Or as motivational speaker Zig Ziglar puts it: "You do not pay the price of success; you enjoy the price of success."