O MAI! What have you all been talking about when I wasn't on ACF a few days while I worked crazy long hours on MFC? Haha, what a great discussion and I'm so happy this is here! There has surely been way too much negativity about this going on in the Twitter land. I put a little bit of thought into this topic and here is my take on it.
I think there is both hard work and luck involved. That ratio is divided for each model, as follows:
1. Hard Work: Yourself, as the model.
As a model, you should expect to work hard on such things that include, but may not be limited to:
- Your persona
- Your appearance
- Your cam space
- Your lighting
- Logging in for *at least* 4 hours per day
- Being organized about how you want to run your room (games, tip incentives, countdowns, shows, etc)
- Keeping up with off-cam tasks such as your Twitter, keeping in touch with your regulars, videos, pictures, etc.
- Maintaining any props such as toys, whiteboards, or anything else.
- Etc
All of these things should be as refined and as organized as possible. For example, and the most important besides putting in the hours on cam, is your appearance, content and cam space and everything should fit in harmony with your persona. Your persona directly correlates with the audience you want to attract beyond just "people that tip me".
I am going to use a metaphor that I like, here. During your cam time, and especially during your shows, you are casting out a net to catch fish. The right fish.
Which brings us to...
2. Luck: Your Tippers.
While your net is cast out, you're catching fish. Inside this net, there will be different kinds of fish with our bait (ourselves). With this kind of bait, we have hopefully caught the type of fish we were looking for. There will be fish that swim away because they thought the bait was something else or they didn't like it after all. There will be fish that are caught but have no money to spend (forever or temporarily). There will be fish that are caught and are capable of spending money but won't. Then, there will be fish that are caught that are capable of spending money and are willing to part with it for you (and bonus: they keep coming back because the bait is too good to resist). Obviously, as models, we want the last kind of fish (but it also the most rare of fish). Every shift.
Which brings us to...
3. Bonus! You can also make your own luck, to a certain degree.
I think you can create your own luck, to a point. For example, maybe there is a great fish swimming around but you were never able to get that fish in your net because he swims at a different time or different day than when you have been fishing. This means that, if you log in at different shifts or work longer hours, you could get a different catch. Or, as another example, if you work longer hours, your current catches and yourself will be able to create more great memories together to strengthen the bond, which is also a great thing!
4. Extra!
Now, others have stated that models need to be pretty and what have you. I wouldn't use the word "pretty" as much as I'd say a look combined with the right persona that is able to cast out a larger net that will catch more fish (and more of the right kind of fish). Meaning, your look appeals to a wider audience of people or even if you have a look and persona that is more unique. If you have bait has never been seen or is very rarely encountered in the seas, the fish have no choice but to go to you for this type. At first, this sound like it could be a good thing (as there is no competition) but it can also mean limiting yourself to a smaller net in which case it may take longer to develop or may flop all together.
Anyway! Moving away from my silly fish metaphor and everything else, I think this is the basic recipe. Even though there is luck and hard work involved, it's unwise to state that a model does well because she *mostly* works hard or was *mostly* lucky. I believe it was a combination and balance, as I stated above. I think that is why it's offensive when someone says to *just* work harder or that someone *just* got lucky if they are successful. I myself was accused of being lucky as the main reason I did so well on MFC immediately because of my look, which was very difficult to hear. It didn't validate the hard work I put in with my persona nor the fact that my bait (arg, the fish metaphor again) is unique (I haven't seen anyone else performing Asian-esce shows on a regular basis)?
I think we would all be better off to acknowledge both of these aspects (luck and hard work) and to encourage each other to work towards being the best we can be on cam and even in our personal lives (which many of us choose to share a bit, in the model side of the forums). These forums are great step to accomplishing this goal! There seems to be plenty of money and people in this industry with so many different tastes and styles that it serves no purpose to see other girl's failures as our success or anything of the sort.
Here's to one, big, happy community! Cheers ^_~