Why I Do It This Way

I have a specific philosophy by which I try to approach every project.

You know how things work? What goes around comes around. It’s true. It’s entirely possible to create a perfect world for ourselves and everybody else through the way that we treat other people.

Business is no different. The causes of our successes and failures in business are a little less obvious than you think. Our success is directly related to, and a result of, the things we do to promote and insure the success of those we do business with…even the subtle, seemingly small things...even with our competitors.

So, when you start to ‘get it’, you start to realize that being anything less than completely, 100% ethical and helpful toward other businesses not only feels bad, it’s downright silly. It's not smart, if I want to succeed.

The formula for creating our own success goes way beyond our corporate mantra of “working for the success of our clients”- it comes down to working toward assuring the happiness and success of every person and organization involved in the project.

Have you ever experienced it? I have found that when I do my job really well…when I go out of my way to do my homework and create a solid foundation of information….project websites, budgets, schedules, drawings, show-flows, contact sheets, etc. -and I do it as a service to the people I am working with so that they can be completely informed and see the whole picture- amazing things happen. When every person and organization on a project feels respected and served with clear and complete information, they can all work toward the same goal. People like to do that- they like to know that they are contributing to the quality of a project, and they like to express themselves in the process...when you create a situation that allows them to do that, amazing things start to happen. Collaborators can now contribute in ways that you could never have possibly predicted. It's magic.

People light up when they feel that they are being respected and taken care of with well-organized information and common consideration…and this vibe is the wave that a successful project rides on. I can give you examples of shows where the wave took off and made the whole experience a ridiculous pleasure.

We work crazy hours on these things…it’s crazy not to invest some energy into making it an upward-spiral…a win-win-win for everybody involved.

I first found these kinds of ideas in a book called The Diamond Cutter. Check it out some time…you might find it interesting…