You make it look so easy

I’ll start with a quote I read today from the book Getting Ahead (Garfinkle, 2011) about a problem faced by people good at their craft. It made me smile because I this was the first time I’d seen it brought up anywhere and which I thought was one of those things I thought you just sucked up and lived with:

Former local San Francisco TV host Ross McGowan was negotiating a contract with his boss. He was surprised when his boss made a fairly low offer, especially considering how high his programs’ ratings were. McGowan asked why the offer was so low and his boss said, “You make it look so easy.”

Not to brag, but I think I do lots of great work (and so do many people I know), but oftentimes I make it look too easy, even when it’s not.

If you work with me, you’ll see the output of my design, programming, and execution. You see the 20 minutes that they can see but miss the 600,000 that has gone on behind the scenes preparing for just this very moment (and moments like these).

You don’t see the hours of PowerPoint deck preparation and storyline rehearsals I do for each and every presentation.

You don’t see the countless trips to the library I make getting books to hone my craft.

You don’t see the endless hours of coding I do just practicing, like differentiating the nuances of a while loop from a for loop so I can use it in my next project.

You don’t see the articles I read on metrics on sales team remuneration design so that I’m aware of potential flaws in the company’s compensation schemes and can proactively work around or advise on these when the time comes.

Easy? If giving up many aspects of life that you feel for and wish you had more time for is easy, then well, yes.