Life Is What You Make It by Peter Buffett

Author:Peter Buffett
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Self-Help
ISBN: 9780307464736
Publisher: Crown Publishing Group
Published: 2010-04-27T10:00:00+00:00

My entrée into the world of professional composing was as a writer of music for TV commercials. Advertising, of course, is a field in which creativity and commerce are thoroughly, completely intertwined. In fact, the motto of one of the great pioneering ad agencies, Benton and Bowles, was “It isn’t creative unless it sells.” This sentiment may drive certain purists crazy, but hey, welcome to reality.

There were many useful lessons to be learned from writing for commercials, and most of them were very humbling. Probably the most basic lesson was this: I had to acknowledge and accept the fact that I was working in a service industry. My music was not an end in itself. It was part of a larger conception, and that larger conception was not intended as a work of art, but as a tool for selling a product.

Understand, I say this not as a put-down or an apology; as with everything else in life, writing for commercials can be done well or done badly; and when it’s done well it takes on dignity and stature. Still, the reality was that I was there to serve the client; accepting this—really getting it—was a big part of becoming a professional, of turning a vocation into a livelihood.

As a corollary to this most basic lesson, I also had to accept that my music, which I poured my heart and soul into, was rarely the most important part of the commercial package. The product was the most important part by far. Next came the imagery—since TV, after all, is primarily a visual medium. A fresh concept or catchy slogan probably came after that. Then there was the music. In the best case, the music played an important supporting role, setting the tone or establishing an attitude; in the worst case, it was simply filler or an afterthought.

But here’s something I learned, and that I believe has application for every working person in every field: No matter how important the music was or wasn’t, I had to approach it as if it were the most important part of the process.

There were two reasons for this. The first was self-respect. As we’ve seen, there’s a paradox when you do something for pay: You sell it, and yet it remains a part of who you are. If I coasted on a job, if I allowed myself to believe that my contribution didn’t really matter much, I wouldn’t just be shortchanging the client—I’d be doing myself a disservice. I’d be putting something out there that was less than the best I could do, and even if nobody noticed except for me, there would be a certain diminishment in the falling-short. A lazy piece of work would linger as a personal embarrassment.

The other reason for always behaving as if one’s work is all-important is more practical: It’s the best and maybe the only way to grow as a professional. Life is school; every gig is an opportunity to learn. Every challenge presented by the world offers us a chance to hone our skills and bring our perceptions into clearer focus.

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