Resilience might be the single most important thing that has to be true about you if you are going to succeed in voiceover. This post, by the way, was prompted by a Seth Godin blog post from a few days ago, and my thoughts have been percolating on the back burner ever since.
I was once asked by an interviewer what I thought was the single biggest key to success in voiceover. My answer?
Don’t quit.
If you are going to be successful in pursuing your goal of working full-time in voiceover, the one thing you cannot do is quit. You have to keep driving toward that goal. And past it. That’s not a guarantee of success. No one can give you that. You might get there eventually (it took me 26 years!) or you might not. But you for sure will not get there if you quit.
Which is where resilience comes in. Your journey will have its ups and downs. Lots of downs. For a long time. And if you can’t shake off the disappointment and bounce back and get right back on the road to your goal, you will end up quitting. If you are not resilient, if you are no good at bouncing back from disappointment, then do quit. Now. Save yourself a world of heartache. Find something else you enjoy doing and pursue that.
But, if you can pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and get right back on the road to your goal of working full-time in voiceover … then you just might make it. And very likely it will take you a lot less than the 26 years it took me.
Thanks, Bob – that was timely and worth reading more than once. My years of striving towards full-time VO are still in the low single digits – it would seem there is hope yet, eh?
Thank you so much, Bob, for a timely word….
My grad school profs advised us actors that if there were Anything we could do that we’d at all enjoy that wasn’t acting, we should pursue that!
Nothing is more Fun than v.o. — but my experience is, perseverance is required.
i just really appreciate this reminder.