coffee-holiday-300w

The Definition of Success

Hey, there!

My friend Kristine Oller recently reminded me of something I have been meaning to share with you.

I often tell my VO students and clients that my job is to defend the success of their careers.

But what exactly constitutes success?

I get that query a lot – “…how will I know I’m a success?” or “…how can I tell if I’m successful?”

I score success via several different criteria, but I’ve come to understand something universal about it.

Here’s what I think it all boils down to:

Success is doing more of what works, and less of what doesn’t.

There. Plain and simple.

Almost too simple, right? I mean, how do you know what works and what doesn’t until you have had the opportunity to try a bunch of things out?

I understand. And as you’re finding your way in voiceover, in performance, in relating to the casting community, in marketing yourself, in using social media, email, Audacity, your microphone…there are going to be glitches and problems and mistakes.

And there are also going to be wonderful results, reads, posts, edits, conversations, classes and discoveries.

Be aware of those things – don’t let either slip your notice.

And then put them both to good but opposite use – do more of the latter (what worked), and less of the former (what didn’t work).

Eventually, you’ll minimize the stuff that doesn’t work, and do a lot more of what does.

And you’ll just get better and better at raising the stakes on doing things that work.

And what does that give you?

Success.

How good are you at doing more of what works and less of what doesn’t? Tell me what works and what doesn’t for you in the comments below.

Hope this helps.

David

One Response to The Definition of Success

  1. Todd Cattell June 11, 2014 at 11:32 pm #

    Succinct and so true….and you got my vote! :)

Leave a Reply