The rehearsal is not the event, although, sometimes, productive ones may feel like it.
The event is definitely not the rehearsal. Treating it as such, can yield disastrous, embarrassing, preventable results.
Event day, game day, showtime—whatever— is not the time for stumbling and fumbling, guessing, and making excuses. The time to get the kinks out, ask questions, and set things in stone, is past.
The time to say “I don’t know”, or “I’m not sure”, is before you position yourself to lead, accompany, or assist.
Perhaps you’ve skated by before, because no one checked you, or knew any better, but eventually that luck (if it can even be called that), is going to run out. Someone who knows how a thing is supposed to go, is going to say something, and their words may be neither tactful nor kind.
Wanna know why the team is shocked, frustrated and mortified? They were blindsided by your lack of preparation. They were laboring under the misapprehension that you, too, got the memo when they did! The assignment wasn’t last minute. They assumed you would know what you were doing, and do it well—not be oblivious, indifferent, in disbelief, and certainly not offended that you’re not getting the “attaboy” you expected.
Unless your role IS to be a mere prop, you just can’t roll in cold, screw up, then grin and say, “oh well”.
Decline the job—ANY job—if you’re averse to preparation. Some tasks can’t be faked. Some occasions are already hard enough without being further burdened by incompetence on display. Even winging it requires confidence and skill! If improvisation, total recall, quick thinking, or spontaneity are not in your wheelhouse, write that thing down! Practice!
Even the most skillful among us practice, and are teachable.
Bad stuff and service are often settled, and even paid for, but it’s never satisfying. Poor execution of your part, affects everything else, no matter how effective or efficient the other players may be.
The excellence that someone may be accustomed to, is no excuse for a lackluster performance. You falling short doesn’t make them look bad. You half-stepping won’t trip them up. Skillful people will pivot, and leave you in the dust trying to catch up. Care enough about your own name and reputation. No one is expecting you to be, or do anything like So-and-so. THIS may absolutely NOT be THAT; the budgets, venues, or occasions may be as different as champagne and koolaid, but for Pete’s sake, make an effort whether the circumstances are grand or small. If you’re going to show up, give 100% whenever and wherever! Your best shouldn’t be doled out according to who is, or isn’t in the room. The excellence you deliver when there’s little or no money on the table, just might change your life. You never know who’s listening or watching. Adjust your attitude. Bring your A-game. At least act like you care—or get out of the way and let someone else do it (whatever IT is).
It’s not enough to just be in the number. Don’t accept a prominent position, where others are depending on you to perform with assurance and excellence, if you know you haven’t done, or have no intention to do the necessary, or even basic work. Be honest about your strengths and limitations. At least have the decency to say something so that adjustments or personnel changes can be made in time to avoid a disaster.
Some jobs require more than occupying space and looking, or dressing the part. No amount of flashy, tailored wardrobes, coiffed hair, or jewelry matters if, for example, you pick up, or sit down at an instrument and play as if you’re wearing Kevlar oven mitts, or sashay up to a microphone and emote like Florence Foster Jenkins.
I was reminded of a peacock I saw strutting across the lawn of a cemetery. I was shocked when it began making sounds. I actually looked around to see where the ear-splitting din was coming from. The noise was actually rising from the throat of that magnificent bird. The irony (and lesson) was stunning. How could such racket proceed from such a beautiful creature? I suppose I could still have appreciated its plumage, but it was greatly diminished by all that honking and squawking. Maybe the “song” of that bird wasn’t for me. Maybe someone else would have loved, or been fascinated by it. All it was giving me, however, was a headache. Forget all of those colors. It might as well been a dull shade of gray… but I digress.
Some people are counting on you not noticing the mess they’re making. They’re banking on you being distracted and mesmerized by stuff that has nothing to do with the execution of the principal thing. They’re looking for you to support what even they know isn’t good. What a thing looks like matters very little if the principal thing calls for the operation your other senses.
When your particular contribution is missing, inadequate, or just plain awful, the whole suffers, and extra work is created for others. Greatness is sacrificed for “good enough”, which, if you’re honest, is never good enough. It’s what was allowed, invested in, or tolerated out of sheer ignorance, stinginess, apathy, or frustration.
One monkey may not stop a show, but it surely can make you wonder whose decision it was to enlist said monkey.
Competence, although a wonderful thing, can’t always save the day. It can try (and scramble) to mute, lie for, excuse, suffer through, or justify mediocrity, but it’s an inconsiderate, delusional struggle that insults the discerning. The presence of mediocrity turns what could or should be lovely, sacred, fun, productive, or easy, into a cacophonous chore.
Whether it’s a matter of taste, or subjectivity or not, mediocrity ALWAYS makes you exponentially grateful that excellence is abundant, and can still be found, enlisted, lauded, and supported.
Better CAN be had. Just look. Ask somebody. Did you ask? Don’t assume it’s not important, unnecessary, or out of your league. There’s never a need to settle, thereby empowering mediocrity and creating monsters who can’t be moved, improved, advised, nor corrected. Settling for mediocrity amounts to deceiving people who, in these almost post- pandemic streets, do not have to pay for, experience, or stick around and bear it. Mediocrity dashes their expectations, erodes trust, and leaves them scratching their heads and asking,
“Why?
How?
Who?
What the heck was THAT?”
We all have to be intentional about doing or giving our best. If you have a part to play, don’t take that lightly. Don’t drop the ball. “No” is always an option, but if you accept an assignment, respect it and the people involved enough to be prepared.
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