Darryn Lyons autobiography shows you the true definition of how hard work is something that can transform your entire lifestyle. Australian born Darryn Lyons arrived in England with hardly any money but with the willingness to physically outwork anyone, he found success. If you are interested in the photography or celebrity driven industry, you would love this book.
Here are some great excerpts from the book:
Page 23
“I was a big networker, a pusher. The desire to go out and achieve burns bright in me. London is a place - all people do there is work, and I love it. To make my space in the business I had to make it happen by building relationships. I worked hard at getting to know people, even though I am not by nature a schmoozer. Usually this meant going out drinking with people.
Often when everyone was in the pub, I’d be out looking for pictures. My average workday was eighteen hours. I enjoy getting up early, but it’s not so easy in England in the winter. I really missed the sun. Pushing the limits meant that I would always come home knackered.”
Page 25
"Working like a dog during the week wore me out, so I would try and catch up on sleep at weekends.
I didn’t want to let a minute go past without trying to make money. To this day, I won’t go near washing and ironing. It’s such a bad use of time."
Page 26
"When I first started at the mail I was on around £60 per job. I was doing multiple jobs, treble shifts. I didn’t sleep – fuck that."
Page 26
"My first experience driving in England was terrible. A very troubled guy threw a rock through my windows as I proceeded up the archway road. I knew he was off his nuts because he threw an ice – cream first. Scary as that was, I knew I was going to have to be tough to make it in this city. The requirement of the job was that I had to be physically and mentally very strong. This gig was like being put into a tumble-dryer on full speed. I could handle it, but I came out a different man."
"Most of my peers were very lazy and just sat in the photographers’ room waiting for the phone to ring and for them to be spoon-fed something. When it did ring, they’d be too scary to pick it up as they hated working, but I’d be diving for it."
Page 87
"I made a lot of people rich – I made photographers into millionaires"
Page 112
"In john I saw the same talent that I had. He could be aggressive and upset people on the street, but he got results."
"John worked his arse off and in no time he went from rags to riches with me."
Page 307
"Hard work doesn’t faze me and I expect the same from my team. I never let the office tell people I’m on holiday-I’m always available. My guys working fucking hard. Yes, they run around the world shagging flight attendants and staying in exotic locations, but they work hard."
Page 313
"In this job, a typical working day is one that never ends. I’m usually awake by around 5 or 6 a.m, and most of the time I don’t get to bed till 2 or 3 a.m. As soon as I get up, I head straight out for my daily walk through Kensington gardens. It really wakes the brain and gets me ready for the day."
Page 318
"My ethos is that if one plan fails, I quickly implement another."
Page 319
"If I have to work around the clock to make something happen, then I’ll do it. People don’t want to work the hours I work, and nobody works as hard as I do. They simply can’t do it – but work is the reason we went fro ‘little’ pictures to fucking BIG pictures."
Page 320
"Be like a racehorse: focus on your target and just go for it."
"The process can be very stressful; being an entrepreneur is ‘worry, worry, worry.’ I used to get off on stress; it was my drug. I loved working out how to get out of ludicrously hard situations just so I could test myself."
Page 327
"I’m a very ambitious person and always desperate to achieve the unachievable."
Page 333
"If business was easy, everyone would be doing it."