TITLE: From Occasionally Great to Consistently Good
AUTHOR: Eugene Wallingford
DATE: December 20, 2010  3:32 PM
DESC: 
-----
BODY:
Steve Martin's memoir, "Born Standing Up", tells the
story of how Martin's career as a stand-up comedian,
from working shops at Disneyland to being the
biggest-selling concert comic ever at his peak.  I
like hearing people who have achieved some level of
success talk about the process.

This was my favorite passage in the book:

<BLOCKQUOTE><EM>
The consistent work enhanced my act.  I Learned a
lesson:  It was easy to be great.  Every entertainer
has a night when everything is clicking.  These
nights are accidental and statistical:  Like the
lucky cards in poker, you can count on them
occurring over time.  What was hard was to be
<B>good</B>, consistently good, night after night,
no matter what the abominable circumstances.
</EM></BLOCKQUOTE>

"Accidental greatness" -- I love that phrase.  We
all like to talk about excellence and greatness,
but Martin found that occasional greatness was
inevitable -- a statistical certainty, even.  If
you play long enough, you are bound to win every
now and then.  Those wines are not achievement of
performance so much as achievements of being there.
It's like players and coaches in athletics who break
records for the most X in their sport.  "That just
means I've been around a long time," they say.

The way to stick around a long time, as Martin was
able to do, is to be consistently good.  That's
how Martin was able to be present when lightning
struck and he became the hottest comic in the
world for a few years.  It's how guys like Don
Sutton won 300+ games in the major leagues: by
being good enough for a long time.

Notice the key ingredients that Martin discovered to
becoming consistently good: consistent work;
<A HREF="http://www.cs.uni.edu/~wallingf/blog/archives/monthly/2004-07.html#e2004-07-12T18_58_55.htm">
   practice, practice, practice</A>,
and more practice;
<A HREF="http://www.cs.uni.edu/~wallingf/blog/archives/monthly/2004-07.html#e2004-07-15T12_07_34.htm">
   continuous feedback</A>
from audiences into his material and his act.

We can't control the lightning strikes of unexpected,
extended celebrity or even those nights when
everything clicks and we achieve a fleeting moment
of greatness.  As good as those feel, they won't
sustain us.  Consistent work, reflective practice,
and small, continuous improvements are things we
can control.  They are all things that any of us can
do, whether we are comics, programmers, runners, or
teachers.
-----