Marko Dimitrijevic: What’s Your True Net Worth?

It’s an interesting question to think about what you’re worth. If you think about it, when you meet new people at a dinner party or an event, they tend to gravitate towards asking about your work. But is that your net worth? Is that really what defines you?

Particularly now, as we come out on the other side of a very trying year with COVID-19, so many people are asking themselves this question. Who, really, am I and what am I worth?

I would propose that your net worth, while made up of many parts of your life, is really about your passion. What drives you? If you’re lucky enough, the answer to this question might relate to your professional life and to what drives your bank account. But it also might not. Some of my net worth comes from my work life, my marriage and my children – but some of it comes from my passion for photography.

I’ve been photographing the natural world since I was a teenager, trying to buy my first SLR camera. I’ve always been mesmerized by the natural world and by the incredible images that are out there if we just look for them. From this love of photography has grown an organization that I founded called Art Benefits Earth. It’s dedicated to promoting my work, and that of other nature artists and to encouraging conservation of the natural resources and ecosystems of our planet.

Recently, this journey led me to the Ocean Geographic Society, an organization that understands how pictures can help us with conservation and to encourage people to work towards using photography as a vehicle for conservation. In June 2021, I was honored to win the Doug Perrine Award of Excellence with a photograph I took capturing a group of penguins diving off of an iceberg.

I could never have set out to charter a course in my life where my photography would have led to a passion for conservation; and to awards for the way I express that passion. But that’s really what considering your net worth is all about. At some point, if we want to live our best lives, we have to ask ourselves what drives us. And we have to actually listen to the answer, even if the answer is scary, or makes you think that you’ll never really be able to pursue that interest.

Take small steps to pursue the idea; you don’t have to give up your job tomorrow because you’ve decided you want to paint. Rather, buy a paint brush and some paints and start painting in your free time. Give yourself the room to grow by allowing that passion to enter your life.

You never know where it will take you, if you leave the door open a crack and consider what your net worth is in areas you may never have considered.