13263: What’s More Valuable: Being Smart Or Being Reliable?
Hey there, hero!
There’s a lot of value in having workable expertise, value in having expertise that’s exceptional, and it’s something I think most of us strive to acquire.
There’s also a lot of value in being dependable, being reliable, being a rock to others in your life…to show up, hit your mark and do the work.
If you had to choose one or the other (I’m sure we’d all like to strive for both, but…), which would you prefer?
I’d like to know your answer to the question posed in the title of this episode, and I’d love to know from two perspectives if you would (in the comments below):
1) Which do you value in others? What would you choose in your peers if you had to make a choice?
2) Which do you strive for in yourself? What would you choose to be more proficient in (knowledge or reliability) if you had to make a choice?
Let me know in the comments below.
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Raw transcript:
Raw transcript:
I subscribe to a newsletter called
Farnum Street which basically is food
for thought at a particularly high
level. Shane Parish uh produces it uh
publishes it and he recently said being
brilliant won’t save you if no one can
count on you.
Okay, I want to unpack that in this
episode of the VO Heroes podcast.
So, let me quickly repeat what Shane
said. Shane Shane Parish at Farnum
Street said, “Being brilliant won’t save
you if no one can count on you.”
And that made me just sit and go, hm,
let’s unpack that. Let’s let’s take a
look at that. Let’s let’s see what that
cuz I’m a guy that like loves learning
new stuff. I love gathering information,
integrating it into what I have and
making myself smarter so that I could be
more attractive to somebody who wants to
hire me for my smarts. And then I
realized that in terms of relative
value, yeah, being smart, very very
valuable. You know, people pay a lot of
money for people who are smart.
And yet I realize that people pay
sometimes even more money for people
that simply show up and do the work.
People that you can count on, people
that you can rely on. You know,
there have been myriad stories
throughout the years of very finicky
actors and voice talent who are late all
the time. We had uh some recent stories
of a very famous actor who would keep
people waiting on set for hours at a
time and you wonder how is this person
capable of still being hired, right?
So my question for you is, how much do
you value your own ability
to simply show up and do the work to be
reliable
for others so that others can count on
you? Uh as opposed to or in addition to
building up your intelligence, building
up your smarts. And how do you think
people perceive that? Personally,
it made me understand instantly that
yes, I value somebody who’s smart,
but man, do I value somebody I can count
on.
And if the two are the maybe this is the
super secret to success, you know, being
really smart, but also being really
reliable. Or how does that all work for
you? This is the conversation that I’d
love to have. So, in the comments below,
tell me what you would prefer. If you
had to pick one, somebody who was really
smart versus somebody who was really
reliable, who would you go to first in
terms of helping you solve a problem?
And yeah, you can pick I’ll take the guy
or the woman who’s smart and reliable if
you want to, but that kind of like, you
know, I’d love to I’d love to know what
you would rather do, right? What’s more
valuable to you? Let me know in the
comments below on viohereroes.com.
That’s where the conversation is
respectful and sane and polite and you
know this isn’t a really controversial
subject so I don’t expect there to be
much of an an argument but just make
your comments there uh wherever you’re
watching or hearing this. Uh you can hit
the like button on this particular
episode of the podcast. You can
subscribe to the channel. you can click
the notification bell and know when the
next episode is coming out. I’d love if
you shared this with another actor or
voice talent or writer who concentrates
on the developing intelligence sides of
things, but you kind of wonder if
they’re going to show up on time.
Uh yeah, feel free to do that. I’m David
H. Lawrence the 17th. I thank you so
much for watching and for listening and
I will see you in the next episode of
the VO Heroes podcast.
(from YouTube)
Reliability, definitely. I can’t cite the number of times I’ve gotten back to someone (immediately – it’s in my nature) and then had to either wait days or re-connect to get a response. (Email applications have even evolved to build in a “follow-up” prompt for emails that go for a period of time unanswered.)
I’d pick the person who is reliable. You’ll have all kinds of difficulty moving forward unless the person is reliable. Being reliable also indicates that the person has qualities like character and integrity, both of which I feel are very important.
1. I would like to have one or two persons on my team that have exceptional knowledge of the area(s) that we are working on. They are people to listen to, and take away ideas for what I need to accomplish in my work/area. Or if I’m a Manager I can see what needs to be dealt with/created by the whole team. If there are more than one or two Experts, they tend to take too much time discussing the deep details of their knowledge area, and not give the rest of the team the info or tools they need to do their work. I look for reliability in my whole team. If you aren’t reliable then how will the work get done?
2. I personally strive for being reliable and relatable. I’m able to take input from multiple directions, both top and bottom level, and come up with plans, various knowledge resources and tools for the team AND for the customers.