Now that you have decided that you have a high willingness to learn, that is you are willing to sacrifice to learn, we can move on to the next part - Willingness to Accept Change.
This is the part that is difficult for some people. Change can be challenging. Change can be tedious. Change can be painful. It can force us to look at ourselves in a new way and adapt.
How does this relate to Voice Over? Here is one example. Many Voice Actors, prior to actually doing VO work, probably heard someone say "You should be on the radio", or "You should do Monster Truck commercials". Now maybe that sounded exciting so we practiced a bunch of scripts in that radio or announcer voice, thinking that everything needed to sound loud and deep. Maybe we eventually reached out to a Voice Coach to let him hear what we are able to do.....only to be given constructive criticism. It is at that moment, the moment when we do not hear what we want to hear, that this side of the Teachability Index comes into play. We were forced to make a decision, accept the change or quit.
Happily, many decide to discard their pride and become teachable. They realize that others know more than them and that if they want to succeed, they must change their thinking.
Why is this so important when it come to VO work? It is actually the fulcrum upon which success depends. The person who refuses to acknowledge this will refuse to accept coaching suggestions, they will look for shortcuts, they may decide to record their own demo, and they will pay the price for that. On the off chance that they do get a job, they may even refuse to follow the direction of the client. Do that and your career is over.
So what does all of this mean? Let's quantify it. In Part 1 we had you choose on a scale of 1-10 your willingness to learn. Now do the same thing on your willingness to accept change. Where are you on that same 1-10 scale? The higher your willingness to acquiesce your own ideas and listen to people who really know this industry, the higher your score.
Now take the number from Part 1 and multiply it with this number. The closer to 100 you get (10 willingness to learn times a 10 willingness to accept change), the higher the potential to be successful. Do you have to be at a 100%? No. In fact, honestly very few people are.
So, how can this information be summarized? What this means is that we should never stop learning. Never stop progressing. Never stop upgrading. Accept the help and mentoring of others. Be humble and you are well on your way to Voice Over success.
