It's work, not play

There's a reason it's called "work." No matter how much you love your job and what you do, it's not "play" (unless you're a musician). What makes it hard isn't necessarily the doing of the job itself, but rather how what you're doing has to fit with those people and organizations with which you must interact.

Two different colleagues said to me today that they dreaded picking up the phone when the call was from a certain individual, because the conversations lately had all been tough. Much tougher than they should be since theoretically everyone has a common purpose. It wasn't so much overt hostility (although sometimes it was), but more that every interaction was harder than necessary.

I think it all comes down to trust. If you trust that the people you're working with are all on the same page as you, and you all have the same goal, then sometimes you just have to let go and trust that things will work out. And if you're wrong, then move on. Is it really worth getting upset, or spending hours in a passive/aggressive mode of combat?

Because other than brain surgery and air traffic control, there aren't too many jobs where people die if somebody screws up.

I work in the entertainment business. The people I'm talking about all work in the business too. But, and this is really important to remember, at the end of the day, if things don't go exactly right, nobody is going to die.

In our business, the worst things that can happen are somebody might loose money, or be embarrassed. Nobody ever died of a bad review. While that is technically true, there is the Norma Brustein exception to that rule. Back in the 1970's after then Yale Rep's artistic director Robert Brustein's wife Norma received a bad review in the New York Times and died unexpectedly a few weeks later, Brustein blamed Times critic Richard Eder. So, if we're to believe the story that simply is the proverbial exception that proves the rule.

So, the lesson for today, I think, is to stop thinking the everyone is out to screw you (they may well be), and limit your paranoia to people who aren't your friends/colleagues/business partners. There are more than enough of those other folks to worry about. And if you've limited your angst to them, think of how much more time you'll have to complain about other things you have absolutely no control over.