The Audition

I had four auditions this past week and I felt good about all of them. For most auditions, you do it and hear something only if you get the job. But one of the auditions was the preliminary round for another audition a couple of days later. Unfortunately I did not advance and after the last few months filled with positive reviews and wonderful support from my colleagues, it was a hard pill to swallow.

Auditioning is one of the toughest things in the business. Most people hate it, but I actually enjoy doing them as I feel it is a great chance to "meet" people and introduce myself. Sometimes you just aren't what they are looking for and you have to "let it go." But this was an important group of people and I felt so prepared and so "on." So how do you deal with those feelings and say "who cares?" after being made to feel "not quite good enough?"

I have friends who do different things: Some scream it out, some drink, some cry, some take the rejection as a sign that they are on the cusp and others let it shatter their self confidence. I happen to go through several stages of the above mentioned things: I may cry, get angry and in the instance of this particular audition, I felt my confidence shaken. It's still lingering in the background. The healthy thing for me to do is to realize that this audition was just ten minutes of my career and it's fine. You don't get everything, but it also runs deeper: I have to believe in my talent so much that it doesn't bother me that a group people who have some power to shape a career didn't "get it." In addition, I have to take responsibilty for the audition and say to myself "O.K. self, if that audition wasn't 'enough,' let's work to find out what can make it even better."

Of course this is all easier said than done. But it's the people who bounce back after rejection that seem to have the career. It's the people who are fearless and who know themselves so well that they say, "Well, you don't get me, someone will and I will work and I will have the career and you can't stop me." I like those people. Even if they have fear, theylook at it, stare it down and then walk right into it holding their heads up high. What a great way to be.

So today I say to those who didn't advance me to the next round: "Thanks. I'll be back and next time you'll wonder what you were thinking."

Peace,

Eric