Act in Good Faith and Your Destiny Will Follow
By Rudy Gaskins, July 16, 2023
As you pursue your career in voice acting, the situations in which you find yourself are partly a result of factors you have no control over. This is not a bad thing as long as you’re acting in good faith. Each choice we make is like a single marble smacking into a closed pack of marbles. They all scatter in a way that could not have been predicted and will never happen exactly the same way again.
Certain events impact the rest of your life. We see it all the time, and each of us can easily recall a dozen examples from our own lives. Yet, we only get to see one side of the choices we make. We don’t get to see what would have been had we made a different choice. We don’t get to travel the paths of the scattered marbles. What we can do is see to it that we are acting in good faith.
A memorable choice that changed my life happened while working in the high-stakes, fast-paced environment of ABC News. I was producing a promotional campaign for a week-long special on women’s healthcare. The choice, innocuous though it may seem, was to walk into my boss’ office and assert that a campaign about women’s healthcare would be well-served by featuring a woman’s voice. It had been nearly 10 years since the network had hired a female voice for on-air promos, and it was not a popular topic. My boss stared at his computer for what seemed like 60 seconds, before turning to me with a poker face, sighed and said, “Okay.” The campaign delivered a ratings success and the woman I hired turned out to be the love of my life and we’ve been growing together for 28 years since. Was that fate? Was it dumb luck? I believe it was a matter of acting in good faith.
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From the Society of Voice Arts and Sciences
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We have all muttered the undeniable truth, “You never know.” but it’s only life that teaches you how true that statement is. Regret, however, fails as a life coach. It leaves you wallowing in the past, immobilized by fear, lost. Instead, take what life gives you and hit the accelerator with honesty and goodwill as your fuel.
You needn’t regret what brings you to the present moment. After all, it took your entire life to get here. Act in good faith, keep an open mind and keep an open heart. There will always be problems, hard times, evil people, etc., but once we acknowledge the series of problems that life is, we can begin to choose the problems we want to solve. We can choose small, petty problems or we can choose major problems that make a difference in our communities and in the world. Consider that while some spend a lifetime trying to avoid problems, others like Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, and Ruth Bader Ginsburg chose to confront problems that most would assume to be insurmountable.
If your good days exceed your bad days, you’re doing pretty well. If they don’t, find better problems. Be okay with not always knowing the right path. Wander around in your reality and let the truth come to you. Take chances, network, trust your instincts. Don’t fear success, ambiguity, or failure. Embrace it with a passion to find the best in yourself. And do it while acting in good faith.
Rudy Gaskins is the CEO and co-founder of the Society of Voice Arts and Sciences (SOVAS), a nonprofit organization in support of voice actors and the community of professionals that comprise the voice acting community. He is the co-creator of That’s Voiceover! Career Expo and the Voice Arts® Awards. Rudy is an Emmy Award-winning TV producer and branding expert, who has developed creative and branding expertise for global brand such as American Express, Lexus, NBC Sports, Delta Air Lines,Costco, Food Network, BET, and TV One. He has won dozens of marketing and creative awards across the media spectrum.
From the Society of Voice Arts and Sciences
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