![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Mr Gaiman gave the commencement address for Philadelphia's University of the Arts. It's specifically about a career in the arts, but a lot of it is generally applicable.
http://io9.com/5911699/watch-neil-gaimans-delightful-commencement-speech-about-succeeding-in-the-arts
Anyway, he has a very interesting point about freelancing, which, I think, is applicable to ALL forms of freelance work, artistic and otherwise. He said that people get their FIRST job however they manage to get it, but you get FURTHER freelance jobs by three characteristics: being good, being on time, and being pleasant.
And that two out of the three is good enough. If your work is exemplary and delivered when you say it will be, people will deal with an abrasive personality. They'll forgive being late the work is good, and they like you. And, if they like you, you can deliver work that's merely okay -- not actively BAD, mind you, but mediocre -- so long as it's there when you say it will be.
This rings very true to me. It's not entirely applicable to me, because, in a freelance service job, "on time" is not negotiable -- if you're not there, then you're not doing the job. If there's a bar I need to tend at 8 PM on Tuesday, I really can't push that off until Wednesday . . .
For that matter, "pleasant" isn't negotiable, either. In a service job, again, that's the job.
But, yeah, you can get work if you're pleasant and on time, and merely "okay" at the actual work. Pleasant, on time, and GOOD is BETTER, of course.
But this DOES seem to hold true for a LOT of fields -- construction and programming, to name two. I don't do either, but I've got friends and family in both fields, and, yeah, people I know are willing to work with people who are two out of the three, but not ONE out of the three. . . again, the person who's three out of three is the first choice . . .
http://io9.com/5911699/watch-neil-gaimans-delightful-commencement-speech-about-succeeding-in-the-arts
Anyway, he has a very interesting point about freelancing, which, I think, is applicable to ALL forms of freelance work, artistic and otherwise. He said that people get their FIRST job however they manage to get it, but you get FURTHER freelance jobs by three characteristics: being good, being on time, and being pleasant.
And that two out of the three is good enough. If your work is exemplary and delivered when you say it will be, people will deal with an abrasive personality. They'll forgive being late the work is good, and they like you. And, if they like you, you can deliver work that's merely okay -- not actively BAD, mind you, but mediocre -- so long as it's there when you say it will be.
This rings very true to me. It's not entirely applicable to me, because, in a freelance service job, "on time" is not negotiable -- if you're not there, then you're not doing the job. If there's a bar I need to tend at 8 PM on Tuesday, I really can't push that off until Wednesday . . .
For that matter, "pleasant" isn't negotiable, either. In a service job, again, that's the job.
But, yeah, you can get work if you're pleasant and on time, and merely "okay" at the actual work. Pleasant, on time, and GOOD is BETTER, of course.
But this DOES seem to hold true for a LOT of fields -- construction and programming, to name two. I don't do either, but I've got friends and family in both fields, and, yeah, people I know are willing to work with people who are two out of the three, but not ONE out of the three. . . again, the person who's three out of three is the first choice . . .