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Thursday, January 05, 2012

Resolution 2012: Do Nothing?

In the words of the great philosopher and Indy 500 winner Rick Mears, “To finish first, you must first finish.”

It’s New Year’s resolution time again.

Many of you who are my Facebook friends know that my resolution for 2011 was based on the theory that doing nothing is actually doing something.

Put into practice, this became a goal of not shaving for a year, and I ended up growing the same beard that I had in high school. It was a fun quest, and had side benefits such as totally confusing publishers of recent “congrats on 40 years in the industry” notices because I look the same in both old and new photos.

This is a lead-up to an idea I’d like to throw out to you: success in business can be the result of doing nothing. Further, it is a range of particular nothings that I want to propose here.

On a related note, my late father-in-law used to say to me, “You’ll be fine as long as you don’t screw it up.” Sounds obvious, but then again, we can be blind to the obvious.

Meeting The Need
Let’s start with our clients. I read a lot of griping about them on various blogs – how ignorant they are, how little they understand what we geniuses are doing, how much credit they don’t award us, how they don’t understand the simplest principals of audio, and so on.

Get over it. If they knew what we were doing, or how it all worked, or the basic theories of signal flow, they wouldn’t need us. Do nothing to change this. We had better hope they never figure it out, and that it stays a black art, because the day their 12-year-old kid can do it from a cell phone app is our last day on the speed dial.

I regularly endure sound folks with a chip on their shoulder because they’re tired, overworked, don’t like the gear they’ve been issued, or don’t like the musicians, or the event planner - or all number of folks who don’t know anything about audio.

That’s not their problem, so don’t make it yours. It may seem obvious (see above), but do nothing to tick off the band, the management, the stage crew, the promoter’s assistant, the electrician, or the security team.

And upon receiving that aggravating e-mail from any of the above-mentioned “ignoramuses,” do nothing. Many of us have the tendency to write a long-winded dissertation about why we’re right and they’re wrong, and then to emphatically punch the send icon to show them that we’re on top of it and reaffirm that we’re the expert by one-upping them.

If you really need to write something, go ahead, get it out of your system - but save it as a draft. And then do nothing.

Professional Graces
A growing and increasingly important section of the client list is women.

You guys out there may have been too busy with dirt track cars or hang gliders to notice who is signing the contracts, the checks, as well as stage managing the gigs and hiring the sound vendors these days.

Women have climbed up the ladder in the concert industry, and in my view, it’s a most-welcome change and is primarily due to a big advantage: many of them can do more than one thing at a time, and this multitasking capability is a valuable skill in our industry.

Meanwhile, a significant portion of the male species only think about one thing (besides sports) when they aren’t eating, and that is women.

So may I politely suggest to the more “Neanderthal inclined” readers to keep your mouth shut at the gig, on the phone, and in e-mails and blogs about this. Do nothing. It will keep you in professional graces as well as current with the times.

Healthy Outlook
When the deli tray has been sitting out all day and it’s just staring at you during that lull in the day when the band isn’t on stage yet, or after sound check but before a proper dinner is put out, do nothing.

Keep yourself healthy and in your weight class. Bread, rolls, mashed potatoes, chips, and any number of other carb munchies that make up the typical crew diet can do damage over the long term. Carbs train your body to digest in short bursts, build fat reserves (also known as a pot belly) and drive your pancreas crazy. (So your pancreas, too, desires you to do nothing.)

Along these lines, sugar is another enemy of health and the friend of eventual side effects such as diabetes. Many of us long timers are now suffering from internal diseases that can be traced directly to our massive intake of sugar, in the name of getting short-term energy to push through the gig.

When encountering sugar in all its disguised forms such as corn, cereals, loaded into drinks or coffee, sprinkled into salads and pasta sauces, do nothing - except try to avoid it. Or as medical doctors pledge upon entering their profession: “First, do no harm.”

The Finish Line
In the words of the great philosopher and Indy 500 winner Rick Mears, “To finish first, you must first finish.” He has the record for earning the pole position six times, and is one of only three drivers to win the race four times, so he knows what he’s talking about.

During the last few years of economic turmoil, when so many sound companies have folded up their tents and let the banks take back their loans and gear, these are important words to live by.

If you can finish - survive the tough times and stay around long enough to experience the good times - you can have a long and successful career, like me and the other people/companies that are still around to talk about the “good old days.”

The survivors are the ones who did nothing to screw it up.

Gary Gand is president of Gand Concert Sound in Glenview, IL. GCS has been on the forefront of large-scale audio since the 1970s and are known in some circles as the “NEXO guys.”

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