LOST AMBITION

I’ve talked about my voice becoming unreliable after my stroke some six years ago. But even if my voice would have been perfectly preserved, I think I might have left the industry sooner rather than later. Why is that?

It has to do with ambition, or lack thereof. The word ambition comes from the old French “ambicion” which means “a desire for honor or promotion; the will to achieve something extraordinary.”

I’ve always been ambitious in the sense that I wanted to perform to the best of my abilities. I believe we were born with certain talents for a reason, and those who have the drive to make the most of those talents, stand a greater chance to achieve something meaningful… not necessarily to win shiny awards, but to help the world become a better place.

BEING THE BEST

I’m not a competitive person who wants to come first at all cost. That’s why I will never take part in competitions so I can show off my prizes. Doing my best is more important than being the best. But that’s just me. To each his own.

Especially in artistic competitions it’s hard, if not impossible, to identify a clear finish line like they have in sports where the fastest time or the highest score determines who wins. I have judged quite a few voice over competitions, and the top tier talents are all good enough to walk away with top honors.

The winner is often in the ear of the beholder, which tells us more about the beholder than about the winner. I’m not saying this to invalidate the winners or the competition. What I am telling you is that competitions are just not my cup of tea as a performer.

Being able to consistently make money with my voice since I was seventeen, is a big accomplishment in my book. Every time a client picks me after auditioning countless colleagues, that’s a win. I always say that satisfied and returning clients are my best credentials.

A client will always pick the voice he or she believes is best for the project, regardless of accolades and trophies. Having said that, it has never hurt a career to walk away with a prize that is well known and respected. However, most of the clients I work with have never heard of any of the voice over competitions, and people don’t care about what they don’t know.

But there’s more to ambition than winning competitions. To me, ambition is a willingness to increasingly learn and grow in my profession, taking on more challenging projects for bigger clients at better rates.

Ambition is deeply personal and limited to someone’s unique abilities and background. I don’t have a movie trailer voice, so it’s never been my ambition to emulate Don LaFontaine who came up with the phrase “In a world…”

Being a successful voice over has everything to do with picking the projects that are right for you and your voice type. I was lucky to have a natural, neutral European accent that many could not replicate. I was one of the very few native Dutch speakers who is also a US citizen. This made it easy for US-based clients to do business with me.

BEEN THERE, DONE THAT

But here’s the thing. If you’ve been in business as long as I have, there are very few surprises. Most of the things I set out to do in my career, I have already done or am no longer interested in.  After reaching another milestone it becomes more of the same and the drive disappears. I truly count my lucky stars that there’s nothing left that I wish to pursue, professionally speaking.

On top of that, I am a creative person at heart, and being a voice over involves reading other people’s copy the way other people want it to be read. What excites me is creating my own content. It’s one of the reasons I like blogging so much. I’ll tell you more about that later.

Do you consider yourself to be ambitious? What is a goal you’d like to reach or a prize you’d like to win, and what would that mean to you?

Please share your thoughts in the comments!