Learning how to say “No” is important. It’s easy to take on too many projects at once, or get involved with time consuming artists/sessions that do little to further your creativity or career goals. A prime example of this happened to me a few years ago, just before the Super Bowl.
I had written a piece of music for one of the big car companies, and the client loved it. However, my track wasn’t the only one in the running, there was a piece of music submitted by another music house that the client also loved. It was between me and this other composer. All I had to do was make a few revisions, and the job would be mine. To add to the pressure of the situation, this was a big budget Super Bowl commercial. Not only would it pay well, it would be a high visibility spot, and give us bragging rights for the next month or so.
Well, this being the face paced world of commercial music, I had half a day to work on these revisions and send them to the client. Not a problem right? Wrong. We also had a Voice Over session booked for the same time slot that I needed to do my revisions in. Obviously getting the music finished was the most important task of my workday, but I was over confident, and felt that I could work the VO session, and do the revisions quickly afterwards. I still remember my producer asking me if I was sure I could do it. I said yes. What a foolish move.
Inevitably, the VO session went longer than I thought, and left me with only an hour to get the revisions done in time. I worked as quickly as I could, and did what I thought was a good job, although I knew inside that I was rushing and not working to the best of my ability. I’m sure that by now you’ve guessed it, but I lost the job, and got to see that spot air without my music on a regular basis for quite some time afterwards. Awesome.
I’d like to say that I’ve learned from this experience, and since then have never over extended my self, but that wouldn’t be true. It’s almost too easy to say yes to something, only to regret it afterwards. Only recently have I finally started to put my foot down, and stop feeling bad when I say No to projects. How about you? Do you find it easy to say no? How do you manage your time, to ensure that you can accomplish what you’ve set out to do? I’d love to hear about it.