Dare To Be Great
One major element that hugely holds creative people back is fear. Following are 10 keys for the "on-air artist" who is held back from greatness by fear.
1. It's easy to be average. Without risk-taking you will always be average, never great. Anyone with a little skill and training can be average. It takes great courage to be creative.
2. The number one factor that holds many artists and creative people back from greatness is fear.
Fear of:
- What others will think
- Losing the job
- Looking foolish
- Failure
3. In order to be great there are always risks. If Steve Jobs had stopped at
the first 10 failures, there would be no Apple personal computers. There would
be no high-tech industry in the U.S. Failure is an essential part of
the creative process.
4. Sometimes "mistakes" can become great art. Some of the best "bits" on the radio are total mistakes and become great when the DJs and presenters are spontaneously themselves... reacting in a funny or powerful way.
5. Failure as "part of the success process" is uniquely inbred and hammered into our culture. (The American Nobel Prize winner who invented the microchip was considered a "failure." He wasn't even accepted into a university... he learned electronics in the Army instead.)
In America, kids are taught early on:
- If you don't break an egg, you don't get an omelet.
- There's no success like failure.
- If at first you don't succeed, try, try again.
6. No one gets it right all of the time. In order to succeed, some things must fail.
7. Apply this to radio: Offer one "surprise" per morning or per show that no one expects. Try new things. If you think it'll work, there's only one way to find out and that's to try it. If you live in fear of looking foolish, you'll do worse. You'll be boring and predictable. If you "expect the unexpected," it works a lot better.
8. A consistent payoff pays off. For example, Howard Stern's audience research shows that many people tune in for four hours every morning for one laugh... They'd stick with 3:59 of Stern attempting to make them laugh, and usually at some point he does. But if he doesn't do it today, maybe it'll happen tomorrow. His audience is loyal because for them when it works, it really works.
9. Not everything you try has to work all of the time. It has to work just enough of the time so that the listeners feel connected to the presenter... and that they'll hang in for the things that don't work so they're tuned in when they do.
10. Think about the artists you respond to. Likely, they're artists who try something new. They have the courage to be themselves on the radio, they take risks, they tell the truth, and are never boring.
Decide what you want to be average (easy) or a star (courage to create!) and then go for it!