My wife and I always joke around that we want to be great at what we do but we don’t have 10,000 hours to spare.
“We’re gonna have to do it in a thousand!”
As a result, we dedicated ourselves over the years to quickly learning from our mistakes and improving on each and every endeavor. For me, that meant being very self-critical and taking ownership of anything that went wrong. And man, have things gone wrong.
Here’s a brief, incomplete list of some of my biggest failures:
- • Forgot to charge the batteries for my microphone and it quit working halfway through the show.
- • Left an important prop in the car and panicked mid-show when I realized I wouldn’t be able to continue as planned.
- • Did an entire show with my pants unzipped.
- • Also, I ripped the seat of my pants onstage once.
- • Bombed on live TV.
- • Bombed in front of live audiences.
- • Got lost on the way to a gig and was over and hour late.
- • Went way over my allotted time for a show.
- • Went way under my allotted time for a show.
I could go on and on. I’ve failed more times than you can imagine. However, I’ve always held true to one personal philosophy: It’s always my fault. ALWAYS.
I should have charged the batteries and should have double or triple-checked my props. Ever since that fateful day I always check my fly now. I’ve learned to cope with bombing, always leave earlier than I need to when headed to a gig, and have learned to nail the length of my show…down to the exact minute.
I have no one to blame for those experiences except myself. But as soon as they happened, I took responsibility for my failure, fixed it, and moved on. Sometimes I only have to fix one thing and other times I have to fix several things. But that’s what it takes to get better in a hurry, especially when you don’t have 10,000 hours to spare.
The same philosophy holds true for other things that might seem out of your control, too.
Have a difficult client? You must have attracted their interest somehow or not done enough to educate them on your services. It’s your fault.
Have a frustrating venue or tech problems? It’s your responsibility to communicate to the client and prepare beforehand. Take the blame because it’s your fault.
Keep finding yourself in work environments that you don’t want to be in? Change how you do things. Be strict with what projects you take on and what clients you do business with. Or, don’t complain about the work you’re doing. Either way, it’s your fault.
The sooner you learn that it’s always your fault, the better. You can keep going around blaming other people when things go wrong, but you’ll never get better that way. If you want to get to the next level you’re going to have to start being honest with yourself and that starts by knowing that the blames rest squarely on your shoulders.
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About Mark Toland
Mark Toland is an award-winning mind reader and two-time TEDx Speaker. His mind blowing skills have been featured on NBC, ABC, FOX, CBS, NPR, WGN, Sirius XM, and more. Mark’s blog is a behind-the-scenes look at the life of a professional entertainer, full of creative thoughts for creative people. Sign up below so you’ll never miss a post.