The Real Problem with Being Behind

The other day I went to a salon looking for some new beauty-consultant-type people. When you’re new in town, and really don’t have any recommendations, there’s no way to really know where to start when you need to get your hair cut, or your nails done or whatever whatever. So basically, I went in blind.

No big deal. What I was having done wasn’t life altering in any way. Superficial beauty treatments usually aren’t. Especially the ones that take an hour or less. (Unless it’s a bikini wax, but we won’t go there!)

As we got started, I asked the sweet lady about a part of the service which I mistakenly assumed she would either include, or at least be able to offer. It wasn’t any different from what I was having done, except for the type of product she was using. (No, it wasn’t purple hair color, though we all know that could come up again at some point.) To my great surprise, and extreme disappointment, she’d never seen, nor heard of this product (as well as a few others), even though it is something I’ve been using for at least a decade.

I asked how long she’d been in her current profession, to which she replied more than twenty years.  

In my head: “What? How can you possibly have been doing this for so long and NOT know about this?”  (I would like to point out that this was in my head, because I was so stunned, I didn’t really know how to respond politely, so I just smiled.)

She followed up with: “No one’s ever asked for anything new before.”

And there, my friends, is the REAL problem. Not because no one has asked for anything new, but because she is sitting around WAITING for someone to ask before she bothers to:

A.      Train in new techniques

B.      Try new things

C.      Experiment with new ideas

D.      Attempt to better her own skills

E.       Keep up with current market trends

As a writer, it is my JOB to keep up with all of those things I just listed. Not because someone asks, or because someone else thinks I should, but because progress = each individual person taking the initiative to move forward of his or her own accord. That’s how we succeed, no matter our chosen profession.

The cute lady in question didn’t do a bad job. In fact, except for her inability to offer that one thing, I found her rather skilled. Unfortunately, I’m afraid I won’t be returning to her for the service, because she simply cannot offer what I need. I’m a regular customer who will, sadly, have to keep searching for my beauty people.  

Don’t be the person who loses a job, or a publisher or agent or client or whatever, just because you don’t keep up.

*climbs off soapbox*

What are you doing to better yourself or your skills this week?

Cops and Writers

You know what I realized recently? Cops and writers have a lot in common. I’m serious. Hear me out. I’m married to a cop, and I’m a writer, so I don’t know why this only just occurred to me. But think about it.

Both cops and writers have a tendency to sit in the back of a room—generally speaking—so they can see what’s going on around them.

Both cops and writers are people watchers, paying attention to what others wear, how they act, what they say, facial expressions, nervous ticks, body language, shifty eyes—you name it.

Cops and writers often work odd hours.

Cops write daily reports about the infractions and complaints of real people, while writers make up pretend infractions and complaints of fictional ones.

Cops and writers both spend time researching things that might get the average person put on a homeland security watch list: Bank robbery, drug labs, types of guns, forensic science, poisons, the effects of bombs and other weapons of mass destruction, computer hacking, etc.

Also, people easily misread both cops and writers. Cops tend to be criticized or seen as bad, when in reality, it’s their job to serve and protect everyone in a community. Writers tend to be criticized or looked down on for their creative streaks that may (or may not) seem eccentric, for the words or actions of the characters in their books (which are usually out of our control) or for their tendency to “daydream” mid-conversation or at other inopportune times, and yet these are often the moments when brilliance is born.

And…

Cops are brave. Their job sometimes requires them to run at a scary situation rather than away.

Writers are also brave. Our job requires dumping portions of our heart out in front of millions of people (potentially) and put it up for criticism from every one of those millions.

Yep. That’s a lot all right. Who knew! Did I miss anything?

Little Extras

My son got a job last week. This is a huge accomplishment, since he’s been looking for quite a while. In a sign of our poor economy, 350 people showed up to interview for 22 job openings at a newly renovated and reopening theater in town.

My sixteen-year-old, let’s call him Doc, managed to snag one of those 22 jobs. It’s very likely that most of the applicants were more qualified or experienced than him. What did he do to get noticed, to stand out above the other 349 people?

He worked. Most people who applied stayed just long enough to turn in their applications and be interviewed, but Doc stuck around. He realized that this theater was set to open in a matter of days, and there was lots of work still to be finished. So while he waited for the job announcements, he found someone in charge and offered to help, no strings attached. There were maybe five applicants—all kids—who were willing to work without getting paid. All but Doc were girls.

Doc left my house before eight in the morning, and didn’t come home until seven thirty that evening. But when he got there, he was glowing, because they’d offered him a job and given him a first day schedule.

That’s what he did to stand out and be noticed. To rise above the sea of others who all either needed or wanted that job as badly as him.

We all want something in life that seems either unattainable or just out of reach. The question is are we doing everything we can to rise above the other people who want similar things? Are we giving back to the community and to the world, or do we just expect to be “chosen” on our excellent qualifications and pretty smiles? Sometimes it comes down to all the little extras. Do you want your big thing bad enough to work for it?