Some of my biggest mistakes

Have you ever tried to drive a car with the “wrong” speedometer settings?

You may be surprised to find this out, but if you live in America, yes your car has two speedometer settings. You can drive using miles per hour (mph) or kilometers per hour (km/h). This simple difference between US Imperial units and Metric units is small, but the repercussions of using the incorrect measurements are large if you’re driving in another country like Canada or launching a $125 million spacecraft.

On December 11, 1998, NASA did exactly that – making a very expensive mistake by launching the Mars Climate Orbiter into space. Though it took over 10 months to discover, the Orbiter’s final destination would see it burning up in Mars’ atmosphere before collecting any data whatsoever.

Now, hopefully our mistakes haven’t cost us $125 million (or even more, when considering the work hours) – we still make plenty of mistakes when it comes to growing our careers. As shocking to you as it may sound, I’m human, I’ve done (and continue to do) this as well.

So today, to both humanize myself and reassure you, I want to share three of the biggest mistakes I’ve made in my career. Namely,

Not being honest with myself
Making excuses
Under and over-estimating myself

Real self-honesty is incredibly difficult.

But, it also happens to be what enables us to focus, get clarity, use energy/time wisely, and make aggressive leaps forward in our careers. If you’ve ever felt exhausted and overworked despite not yet having your first (or first few) real paying gigs – inevitably, this is the root of your problem.

I know, because when I started in audio and gave up on the dream of a full time music career – I wanted to do anything, everything that made sound. And, I did! But it took a long time, I worked super hard, and I was paid very little. While I love audio as much as any of you, I also love not being overworked and paying my bills.

The first thing I suggest to folks starting out is to narrow your focus. Pick one thing to become a specialist at and absolutely crush it. If you want to be a sound designer for games – be a sound designer for games. That means not being a sound designer/composer/programmer/ambient artist. When you start with “sound designer” you can add “composer” once you’re into some sound design success if you’re still feeling it – nobody will tell you it’s not allowed. That focus will then provide clarity for your future clients (or employer) and make you a master much faster.

You’ll also have more energy due to less option paralysis and stress.

And being honest with yourself about your energy levels is even more important than being focused. None of us are made the same – we all have varying things that pump us up and that suck our energy dry. We also have different amounts of energy available to expend at any given time.

I still deal with my own limits today – the only way I’ve been able to figure them out is trial-and-error. My old self did something you’d find familiar – create a task list, work to mental exhaustion, say to myself “Ugh…. I have four more tasks left but I just want to shoot demons in DOOM….“, then guilt myself making neither work nor DOOM enjoyable.

Today – and again, I’m NOT perfect at this – that exhaustion triggers an evaluation. I have to ask myself if I’m actually tired and need to quit, or if I just need a 15 minute break. A big hint to this is how I’m feeling at the end of that 15 minutes (yes, just take the break!) – if I’m burnt, I know that I’m done and I made my task list too big. Instead of guilting myself, I can just learn from it and adjust the next day.

This process is incredibly important to pay attention to and be honest to myself with, because if I don’t then I’ll inevitably get into the habit of making excuses. And, as we all know, excuses often aren’t good either.

Excuses are easier than work.

I used to have two catchphrases growing up – “I’m going to” and “I will in a minute” – and shockingly, that minute never came. Even before smart phones, I sat in front of the TV, in front of video games, or whatever else I was engrossed in instead of doing the thing I needed to do.

And as I got older, absolutely nothing changed.

I can’t tell you exactly what kicked me into gear, but one day I realized that I was a “perpetual starter”. I would get an idea for a project, start it, get tired of it, and move onto the new shiny next project. This is the antithesis of being a “top performer”. By definition, those who perform the best are naturally finishing the things they start.

I took Ramit Sethi’s “The Finisher’s Formula” course and learned Henry’s Ford’s quote “Whether you think you can, or think you can’t – you’re right” and took all of the information to heart. Slowly, I realized that whenever anyone uses the phrase “I will”, it’s a huge tell for “I’m never going to do that” and I was just as guilty as everyone else.

Here’s some super cold, super hard, super awful truth for you…

Getting and doing the things you want is hard, sometimes boring, and takes a lot (meaning years) of work. Making excuses to be lazy or succumb to fear only delays the win.

I’d undercharge and overapply.

It seems like a contradiction to charge too little and also assume that I’m more skilled than I really am – right? But, I’ve found myself in this spot more than once and I don’t believe that I’m alone.

Charging enough money to really make a living is hard at first. Personally, I had no context of how much money anyone made for a living. I was also just scared to ask for too much money. I ensured that I would never be given too much money, because I always charged under minimum wage. It was not an incredibly astute business tactic.

So while my skills grew and my bank did not, it became possible for me to get a big head! I began teaching others and recognizing that I was more capable than other folks sometimes, and so I began reaching for bigger and better gigs. While that’s exactly what you should do after a while, you may have heard someone say:

“Eh, I’ll apply to this senior role. Maybe they won’t hire me, but at least it’s good practice – and maybe I’ll get an interview!”

I count myself lucky that employers are too busy to keep a list of those who waste their time, as I’ve done that a few times by reaching and applying for jobs I clearly wasn’t ready for yet.

“So Adam” you say, “You’ve clearly done dumb things, I would never…”

There’s one big point I want you to take from this – and it’s not that I’m a mistake-prone human (which I assure you, I am). It’s also not that you’ll make some of these mistakes and many more (which, you probably will).

I would like you to notice that I’ve made these mistakes and I’ve still done lots of very cool things.

Friends, making mistakes isn’t just part of the process – it is the learning process!

So just what were those dumb things again?

I’m so smart that I:

Wasn’t honest with myself about what I wanted or what I could actually do
Made so many excuses it makes my head spin
Somehow both undercharged and thought I was an audio super-genius

Make plenty of mistakes.

It’s going to be part of your career and a significant piece of your learning process. Just… do me a favor and don’t waste $125 million on your failures.

If you’re looking for that focus…

I wrote Quit Aspiring for those of you looking to get your start in audio for video games. Whether you’ve been wondering what your first step should be, if you should move, what skills you need, etc – the book covers a lot of ground.

And, later this year I’ll be working on a revised, re-written 2nd edition! Keep your eyes peeled, I’ll have more updates in these very articles as the time comes!