Write It Down or It's Not Plain!

I hope you never do this. Let me know if you can relate...

I was thinking today of myself as a young artist who was looking for gigs.

Some friends of a friend heard that I might be available to direct their production and they called me. I was so excited! If this worked out, this would be my first full show since college!

They came from a small town/ farm country like I did and so when we met, I felt at home with them. They were cool and seemed like they wanted a quality show like I did.

They mentioned to me what they expected and what the budget and pay would be. I shared what I was hoping for and they seemed to be good with it all. We even set dates for auditions and began to prep for the show. It was all good.

It wasn't until we were in the process of rehearsing that things began to break apart. You see, the producers nor I had anything written down. Just some scratched notes on pieces of paper.

Sure, I knew better. I had learned all about writing it down and creating clear expectations in college. But I had also come from a background where the strength of a "gentleman's handshake" was sufficient and you trusted everyone. Why write it down?

I found out why pretty fast. In the process of rehearsing the show, when I required help or was inquiring about something for design, there was many times when there was surprise and hesitancy about providing it. Sometimes, what was done was not what I asked for. It slowed the down the process because we needed to repeat conversations and redo. Ug!

We got through the production ok and it turned out to be a good show. The team and I were tired and in some ways stressed but grateful and excited for the result. We even got some really good press coverage. So that was wonderful!

Unfortunately, the financial payment for the work I did never happened. And this was all because we did not write anything down. It was their word against mine. It sucked but it was true.

I will never forget this. Now, I always write it down and ask whoever I am working with to do the same. It becomes a contract between us.

If you want to know more about how I do this, please email me at wanda@kaizenworks.org


Wanda

Kaizen means "continually growing" in Japanese.
http://www.kaizenworks.org

Choosing Power

Some of you may have noticed that I changed my signature on my email. It now includes a quote from George Bernard Shaw and it says, "Imagination is the beginning of creation. You imagine what you desire, you will what you imagine and at last you create what you will. "

I have been doing lots of thinking about creating and imagining and how that manifests in our lives. When I came upon this quote by Shaw, I realized that it spoke of the Law of Attraction and I just had to have it on my email. It fits perfectly with my thoughts right now.

The Law of Attraction is a scientifically proven law that can be stated this way: (from Michael Losier's book, "Law of Attraction") "Whatever you give your time and energy and focus to, it is that which you will have in your life."

Interesting that I have been thinking about the law and I find a quote about it, eh? (The Law of Attraction right at work!) The other very intriguing part of it is that I found a quote on this from a world renowned playwright. How exciting to find that an artist who thought some of the same things I have been thinking!

When I realized that someone with a love for theatre and the arts just like myself was speaking about this law, I wanted to dig a little farther into his life. I've read some of the plays that Shaw wrote such as "Arms and the Man" and "Pygmalion" and I have seen them on the stage. But I did not realize how much of a positive social impact this man had on society.

Perhaps Shaw's greatest accomplishment was the "finding of the Fabian Society, a socialist political organization dedicated to transforming Britain into a socialist state, not by revolution but by systematic progressive legislation, bolstered by persuasion and mass education. The Fabian society would later be instrumental in founding the London School of Economics and the Labour Party. Shaw lectured for the Fabian Society, and wrote pamphlets on the progressive arts, including The Perfect Wagnerite, an interpretation of Richard Wagner's Ring cycle, and The Quintessence of Ibsenism, based on a series of lectures about the progressive Norwegian playwright, Henrik Ibsen." - taken from the University of Pennsylvania English Department.

According to Wikepedia, "His main thrust in the Society was that social class worked to serve its own ends, and that those in the upper echelons had won the struggle. He believed the working class had failed to promote its interests effectively, which made him highly critical of the democratic system of his time. Shaw's writing, as evinced in plays like Major Barbara and Pygmalion, has class struggle as an underlying theme. Notwithstanding that, Shaw was not a Marxist in the traditional sense, and abhorred the aggressiveness of Trade Unionism."

Although I think Shaw was extreme and a little harsh at times in his evaluations and beliefs, I really have fallen in love with this man of the late 1800's. He truly believed and promoted this idea of creating what you focus on. The working class had created their own situation, he said. They had made their own lives what they were. He believed in man taking responsibility for their actions and situations and not blaming others through such actions as strikes and lawsuits. He believed in honest and open relationship and peaceful persuasive discussions. For it is by peace that peace is created in lives.

That brings us back to the Law of Attraction. I would say that when you concentrate on something, it grows. And that is what excites me about living and doing the work of encouraging and creating partnerships that are highly effective and powerful! If you focus on the positive, highly effective and powerful stuff of partnering, your partnerships will grow.

On the other side of the coin, if you focus on words and phrases of ingratitude, for example, the results over time can be devastating.

Wouldn't you rather accumulate the stuff of power?


Keep partnering!

Wanda

Kaizen means "continually growing" in Japanese
Who are you growing?
Kaizen Works