Flying Sky High
Amelia Earhart
As I was posting some information on the Voice Coaches Twitter Page today, I came across this little tidbit of information:
- 8/24/1932 Amelia Earhart (Putnam – her husband is Putnam of Putnam Publishing) becomes the 1st woman to fly non-stop LA to New York.
Intrigued by this factoid, I decided to do some research and I found out that today is the 77th anniversary of Amelia Earhart becoming the first woman ever to fly a solo non-stop transcontinental flight. Not only did she set that record, but she also set the woman’s solo transcontinental speed record, flying 2,447.8 miles in 19 hours, 5 minutes.
But believe it or not, those aren’t the facts that impressed me. No, what impressed me was the fact that Amelia Earhart’s husband was George Palmer Putnam, a famous (and very wealthy) publisher. In fact, Putnam Publishing is still one of the largest publishing houses in the world today.
What that means is that Amelia Earhart was a woman that was married to a rich, famous publishing magnate and who decided to fly across the entire country all by herself in a time when women who were married to rich, famous publishing magnates simply did not do things like fly across the entire country all by themselves. Just 12 years after women in the United States got the vote, Ms. Earhart decided that instead of staying at home being a socialite, she would venture out into the relatively new (and rather dangerous) field of aviation and set numerous records.
Why would she choose to do that? I think the answer is very simple: she needed to. She wanted to. This was a woman with an adventurous spirit; it’s quite clear by her actions and her flying history and records that she would never have been happy doing anything other than what it was she was meant to do. She needed to fly, and she clearly wasn’t going to be happy being second best to anyone.
So if Amelia Earhart could go against what was socially accepted and venture out into a new and dangerous territory because she was driven to do so, what’s stopping the rest of us? Why is it so hard to find that time every day to spend a few minutes marketing ourselves? Where’s the spirit of adventure as we journey into an exciting new career path?
I don’t know the answer to those questions. I’m not sure why people let their marketing efforts somehow fall by the wayside, and then wonder why they aren’t getting more voice over work. I’m not sure how to remind people that it’s persistence and a “stick to it” attitude that gets you ahead in the voice over field (or any worthwhile endeavor, for that matter), or that success doesn’t happen overnight, and it only happens to those who really persevere.
But I can tell you one thing: If Amelia Earhart were alive today and decided to become a voice over artist, I have no doubt that she’s quickly become one of the most successful voice actors around.
This entry was posted in Education, Motivation. Bookmark the permalink.
Very true indeed, Mike. You may end up sending out as many as 50 demo CDs, but if you do not follow up with these contacts and keep trying to make new contacts, your success in this field will be limited. The other part that sometimes gets lost in the work portion of voice acting is that this is supposed to be FUN! The harder you try to put yourself out there, the more likely you are to have fun using your voice on a variety of different projects. So keep the spirit of Amelia alive!
I’ll tell you what, the minute I marry my future millionaire wife I’m going to get out and fly across the world. Since that will probably never happen in this lifetime, I am going to stick with the formula I’ve used my entire life that has given me all my success in this business. Now, that formula is simple, persistence, a confident attitude, skill development, and a extremely positive state-of- mind. To me, those are the essentials and should be utilized no matter what you are up against. But lets face it, the positive attitude should be a given because remember, voice acting is fun!