As you scroll through the tweets and Facebook updates from your friends in the voiceover business, you might be tempted to despair because it seems like everyone else is getting lots of work and you aren’t. A check of objective reality would quickly demonstrate that things are not always what they seem.
Now, I’m not running down anyone who excitedly posts about something they’ve recently booked or accomplished. I genuinely love seeing my friends do well. I’m just trying to say that comparing what you are doing by yourself with what 100 of your friends are doing in the aggregate isn’t an accurate or fair comparison. At any given moment someone else is always going to be a bit busier than you are. By the same token, at any given moment you are more busy that some others are.
What I’m leading up to with the above, is to revisit a point I’ve made previously about the value of generosity or selflessness. Seth Godin has written brilliantly about this subject in his recent post titled The sad irony of selfishness. Do not fear being generous. While you may seem to fall behind now and then as you pass along to others what you cannot or should not do yourself, in the long run you will gain more than you give. No, as Seth points out in his blog post, this isn’t guaranteed. But, isn’t all of life full of risks? And aren’t those who win big always those who also risk big?
(edited to fix typo)
Thanks for this post, Bob. The way I see it, I always congratulate those who do well and believe they would and will do the same for me when I get gigs.
I quietly keep my successes to myself. What purpose does announcing to the world that I just landed a gig serve other than to boost my sense of self importance? Simultaneously rubbing my success in the noses of those who would prefer to have won the same work, it’s not only gratuitous to publicly revel in one’s success, but also indicates a degree of insecurity.