“How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying”
Let’s cut to the chase. The title of the above musical may be catchy, but it won’t work. There are some pretty staggering statistics about actors “making it,” or more to the point, “not making it.” It’s an industry that makes the restaurant business seem like a sound investment. And there’s a lot more than goes into an acting career than looking pretty and hoping for the best. The Lana Turner/Schwab’s Pharmacy approach is about as good a professional strategy as “shock and awe.”
One of the difficulties of the acting world is that there is little help in the business side of careers. Universities and graduate programs dedicate virtually no time to their students on what awaits them post graduation, and the endless parade of events that promise introductions and the inside track don’t necessarily deliver either. Buyer beware.
Whatever the case, without planning, strategy, and the work behind the work, a career will be short-lived. Even with the best of representatives, an actor is responsible for his or her livelihood. That’s the bottom line, and that’s as it should be. And there are some pretty basic business tools every performer should be using at all times – marketing, networking, strategizing, branding, studying craft, creating projects, to name the obvious ones.
Most don’t bother with these things. It all sounds terribly dull. It’s not glamorous, it’s not exciting, it elicits no applause, and it’s time consuming. It’s not acting. And we want the acting. Whatever it was that drew us to this life, it wasn’t the thought of maintaining a database of contacts.
I heard a talk on “the biz of the biz” the other day – you can never hear these things too often – and was stunned to see how many people were making notes about these most basic of ideas. But at least they were there, and with any luck, those notes won’t disappear into the bottom of their bags or linger on “to do” lists that never get done. Not that any of this can guarantee success, but without it… well, I hope William R. Wilkerson is so taken with you sipping your malted at the counter that he introduces you to Zeppo Marx. (Look it up.)
It’s up to you.
For the Mineralava Musings, this is Edoardo Ballerini.
I did look it up… how about that, it never was a malted at Schwab’s — it was a coke at the Top Hat Cafe. In fact, I was going to that very school when I first heard the story. I wonder how the Schwab’s rumor got started?
Maybe the business side of everything is dull and tedious… unless you like business, I guess. It’s like that for writers too, as you probably know. Sigh.