Many years ago I made a comment to a supervisor about how I was trying to find the most efficient way to get something done. He paused and looked me for a few minutes and then gently pointed out that sometimes “efficient” isn’t the right goal. More often, “excellence” is the right goal, even if it’s not the most “efficient” path. Seth Godin makes a similiar point today in his blog post called Circles of Convenience.
Oh how easy it is for me to make the convenient choice, even though much of the time it’s not the best choice. Or, for that matter, even just one of the better choices. Pursuing excellence in your voiceover work means not taking the convenient option much of the time.
My thanks to Stacey Stahl, my manager and more importantly my friend, for sending the link to Seth’s blog post today.
There is a story about a company chairman who had been given tickets to the performance of Shubert’s Unfinished Symphony. He couldn’t go so he passed the tickets to his work study consultant. The next day the chairman asked him how he had enjoyed the performance, and instead of a few plausible comments was handed the following memorandum.
1. For considerable periods the four oboe players had nothing to do. Their number should be reduced and their work should be spread over the whole orchestra, thus eliminating peaks of inactivity.
2. All of the twelve violins were playing identical notes. This seemed unnecessary duplication, and the staff of this section should be cut drastically. If a large sound is really required this could be obtained through an electronic amplifier.
3. Much effort was absorbed in the playing of demi semi-quavers. This seems an excessive refinement and it is recommended that all these notes should be rounded up to the nearest semi-quaver. If this were done it would be possible to use trainees and lower-grade operators.
4. No useful purpose is served by repeating with horns the passage that had already been played by the strings. If all such redundant passages were eliminated the concert could be reduced from two hours to twenty minutes. If Schubert had attended to these matters he would probably have been able to finish his symphony after all.
Philip,
What a great story. I love it!
Be well,
Bob