Hellooo0O Ladies and Gentlemen!
Welcome back to Graceland Ontario! Your one
stop location for connecting the success lessons of Elvis Presley back to your
own life. Today, we're finishing our Halloween series with a post about haunted
houses, and how they're kinda like life in general.
So, I've had the pleasure to participate in
the running of several haunted houses over the years, namely the ones held by
my Scout group. The haunted house is not an overnight undertaking - it takes
plenty of people to make it work. And even if the people who organize it know
how things are meant to go, that doesn't mean diddly squat if the actors don't
know what's up. And even if the actors are good, when the people running the effects,
lights and sounds are up a different tree, the extra punch is lost. And you
need all the punch you can get in a haunted house - plenty of people come to
rip apart what you've done and criticize you. Others keep telling themselves
it's all fake, thereby destroying the fun of being scared in the setting. And for
the people behind the scenes, nothing beats seeing scared customers. I mean,
it's even better than the happy and supportive guests.
You built a haunted house to scare people,
and when it fulfills that purpose and freaks others out, you've completed your goal.
You were successful and the plan worked the way it should, thanks to the
perfect cooperation of your staff.
This whole scenario reminds me of Elvis:
Elvis also had a show to put on. Unlike the goal of the haunted house − to
scare people − Elvis's goal was to reach people at a deep level, a doctor
of voice. The goal was to get inside his audience’s heart and improve
whatever he found there with the songs he sang.
And like a haunted house, there were people
there who probably shouldn't have come out − the ones who came to make fun of
him, to look at him from 'an objective standpoint', who listened because they
wanted to be trendy. The show had to blow peoples’s minds or Elvis's goal of
reaching people at that deep level wouldn't be realised. And all the while,
he'd be taking abuse for every error he made along the way.
Elvis couldn't take care of all the
details. He probably wasn't as professional in all areas as some his staff
were. And even if he was, you can't mix yourself when you're singing to 10,000
people. The simple truth is you need a team. And not just any, out of the dryer
team. You need people who work together darn well and stand by you, whatever
happens.
I remember writing a post sometime ago
about people working together in unity to make a better whole - the importance
of the team. Well, here we go again... the haunted house would not be possible
without the group. All the people being in the right place, the sound people,
the guide, the actors - they're all kernels in the bag of popcorn, and only
when they're popped in the right bag, at the right temperature, in the right
microwave will someone want to eat them. It takes someone to put together that
bag, that team. And, as the bad guy in all the old kid's cartoons said,
"You can't trust anyone but yourself".
What?
Didn't I just say you have to make a team…
but it's up to you because you can only trust yourself? Well, yes. But
initiative is a funny thing. Just because people do a good job working jointly
doesn't mean they would’ve worked collectively had someone not put them
together. Every project, every team, needs a mayor to cut the ribbon, the
driver to give the ticket, the suitor to pop the champagne. Someone has to
start things going. And when you're the one with the idea and the plan and you
dream about it every night and know what you want, it's gotta be you! No one else will do it, and even if they try,
they'll never do it the way you do, the best. It's like one of those 30's Busby
Berkeley movies with all the girls following the brass band choreography - sure
someone else could have thought of it, marching bands have been going for millennia,
but it took Barkley to do it right. And no one else will ever do it the same.
Hitchcock? Same thing. Suspense is an old genre still created to this day, but
no one stands near Hitchcock's silhouette when it comes to creating it.
Life can move you or you can move it, depending on your disposition. The teams are there, but you’ve got to bring them together or never at all. And once they’re one, you’ve got to lead them or watch your dream disappear.
In short, going back to the popcorn
metaphor, you've gotta be the microwave, too − the guy who gets things going. I
mean, those kernels would sit in a bag forever, untouched. It's the microwave
who's the leader, the person who makes it all work. Elvis was that person in
his group - there was no doubting who was the King and who called the shots.
Perhaps it's time you became the King of your little group. You can be nice-ish
about it, just make sure you're getting your say in. And if you need any help
with that, check out the Dale Carnegie classic How to Win Friends and Influence People. It will go a long way in
improving your persuasion and social skills. But, that post will have to wait
to another day, in a month where orange and black aren’t the colours of state
and witches and vampires don't rule in a land of never ceasing darkness and
treats.
Elvis's
Lessons:
Elvis and a haunted house bear similarity (as insulting as that sounds).
You need a team to make it all happen. But that's not all - you need that team
to work together so things are going flawlessly. Moving to my popcorn metaphor
(so proud I thought that one up), you're the person with the initiative to put
together the raw materials (bag, kernels), your team, and also the microwave
who cooks things (leads) so they pop just right. But remember, no one likes
being bossed about. Keep a persuasive attitude - and if you need help with
that, check out the Dale Carnegie classic, How
to Win Friends and Influence People − that should get you fixed up in no
time…
Thanks for reading, Happy Halloween, and
see you in November!
P.S. If this post got you ticking (in a
good or bad way), leave a comment below or at my email at alexghilson@gmail.com
and I'll give you a reply as soon as I can.
P.P.S. If you're interested in hearing some
Halloween Elvis, check out this Youtube video of Elvis singing “Night Rider”.
If you like this post, you may also like
these other FR.EE Graceland Ontario posts:
No comments:
Post a Comment