It is OK...ask for help

You might think we are still in COVID from the title of this post. It must be said that during that dark period we learned a lot about mental health and I think we are all better off now for it, and by extension so is the industry. But no, thankfully we are not (in COVID) and this is not (about mental health).

Over the decades this little industry has been successful in no small part because of the drive and passion of the individuals working in it. Not peculiar to music, I believe it is in the creative fields where passions run strongest. Not saying that people who work in banks do not love banking, but you know...do they really?

Other industries and their lack of passion aside, we all know that our beloved music business is full of people who love music, and love what they do. We attract people who are both passionate and....confident. Confidence is a fairly important attribute for a young person starting out in a tough business like live music touring. But it also can be a problem as you will see

Passion, Confidence, Love of the job. Now let's combine this with something I will call the Ineptitude Paradox. You have people doing something wrong that they think to be right. There is another idea called the Dunning Kruger effect which describes a similar situation where incompetent people, are confident in their job simply because they are incompetent and therefore less able to recognise their incompetency. Now I want to temper that a bit with my ineptitude paradox (and then place it into our business) by defining it as a situation where people are making terrible decisions daily under the Dunning Kruger effect but because the show actually happens no one seems to care. Why doesn't anyone care you ask? Well one theory could be that those who should care only see success through one lens...Did the show happen? Did their commission get paid If the answers are yes then the uncaring continues.

Now, we have a terrible situation for which the main consequence is usually economic....the artist is needlessly losing money. There are also other consequences, and here it begins to rub. There is someone doing good work and often it will be a vendor who goes above and beyond to make a bad situation work out. Maybe an excellent stage manager who covers for the idiocy of the inexperienced (but highly confident) production manager. There are many examples, and yup you guessed it, there is a term for it....The Hero Employee Trap.

Now, I am not saying that people are deliberately incompetent. We have just discussed how they are not aware. So what can be done if you are a witness to this problem?

1. Call it out

Our industry has always had a problem with calling a spade a spade. We prefer to keep our heads down and wait until the fuck up is so bad that something is done (the incompetent one is finally dismissed). But in the interim there is money being lost and people being called upon to do much more than they have been paid to do...It aint right...so call it out

2. Stay in your lane

I only use this expression because we all knows what it means...but in this case I am asking the said vendor, the stage manager, the production coordinator...the heroes of the Hero Employee trap NOT to save the incompetent. Hard to do, but a better result in the end. Just be a stage manager, a vendor, or a coordinator and let the overconfident and inept problem person fail.

Now what about if you are maybe young and supremely confident person who is passionate about your job and suddenly find yourself in charge?

Firstly you should know that someone has made a mistake.

You are not a prodigy of production.

You have two things going for you...you are young and you are confident. Neither of those things qualify you to do the job that some of us have spent thirty or forty years getting right. BUT because the aforementioned people in charge may not care for the reasons we have outlined, then you have three choices.

1. Just keep going and one day the fuck up will be so big that they will have to care and you will be gone; and your reputation, such as it was, will be damaged significantly.
2. ASK FOR HELP. Wind the overconfidence back a bit and seek out a mentor, someone who actually has a track record longer than four years and ask for their help. You might just be pleasantly surprised.
3. TAKE ADVICE. Your four years in the business is not a 'career'. So if someone with experience is kind enough to show you how to do something, be gracious enough to listen and learn.

I have said in the past how we are a judgy lot. Interestingly, I also believe that we are a helpful lot who like to see things done the right way and are happy to give someone young some good advice. The very fact that something called the Hero Employee trap exists suggests that people do want to help. The only difference is we add some humility and some education into the mix. Everyone is better off. I have been doing this job a very long time and I still ask for advice. I am grateful to my peers who are always happy to give their perspective on a problem.

Success in this game is a balancing act. It is a tough business but you don't have to always be the tough guy or girl. It is OK not to know something. It is just NOT OK to pretend you do. Be self aware...head up...looking about and always learning. Don't lose the confidence...just temper it a little with some respect for experience.