Find Value Even When It Isn’t Perfect
Last week Mike Harris, a good friend of mine, performed his Mike Harris & Friends (a one-man show) program at a church in Saco, Maine.
He borrowed my digital recorder so that he’d be able to create an audio CD of this show. Our goal was to have a great CD he could sell during the Tellabration event he’s emceeing on November 18th.
Now, I’m more of a techie than Mike is, and the software to download and edit the audio files in on my computer. So when I let him borrow my recorder I knew that I’d be the one doing the editing. I scheduled time yesterday to tackle this project.
Initially I thought the sound quality would be good enough to create the CD. However once I started editing the sound files, I began to doubt whether or not it would be good enough.
Realizing that I have perfectionist tendencies, though, I kept working on it. I’m so glad that I did. It’s been several months since I’ve worked on audio files so the refresher was wonderful. When I started yesterday morning I was a bit overwhelmed, confused, and wondering what I’d gotten myself in to. By the time I finished though, I was once again feeling like a master at the controls.
Today Mike and I met for lunch. I gave him a CD that had the potential to be a finished copy. I also gave him CDs with the raw audio files that had not been edited (just in case if he wanted to experiment with them). I warned him that the sound quality wasn’t the best, but was the best I could make it.
A few minutes ago I got an e-mail from Mike. He agreed that the sound quality wasn’t good enough to make this collection of humorous stories into a CD he could offer for sale.
But rather than express disappointment or frustration he wrote: “I think this CD is good for my own educational purposes, and maybe good enough to send out if somebody wants a demo.”
I love that Mike found value in this not quite perfect situation. Rather than moan and complain he found a use for this recording of his stories.
When you work on a project or are involved in a situation that provides less than hoped for results, do you discount it as worthless? A waste of time?
I hope not. There is value in everything you do. Sometimes you need to look beyond the results and study the process to find it. Sometimes you need to look at the learning and not the letdown.
What did you do today that was valuable?
October 31st, 2006 at 6:58 pm
Yes, there is always value. When things don’t turn out as you expect them to, sometimes there is value in the end result, sometimes there is value in the learning experience, sometimes both!
In your story Mike got a demo CD and a good reference, and you learned more about the capabilities of the voice recorder and your digital editing skills.
I’ve had similar experiences, where I build a website or computer program that I’m not really happy with, but it paves the way for the next one that comes out right.
Happy Halloween!