Starting at the Top of the Ladder

When I was a member of the Chautauqua Opera Studio & Apprentice program back in the summers of 1986 and 1987 the Artistic Director of the Chautauqua Opera was Cynthia Auerbach. She did a master class one day talking about the career in opera and one thing she said rang in my head from then on and throughout my career. She said...

"You want to enter the profession as close to the top of the ladder as possible,

because starting at the bottom and moving to the top is difficult at best." 

She was speaking about being an opera singer but the principle holds true throughout all disciplines I think. There are several things that establish someone in the business of being an opera singer.

• Youth:
  • The more skilled you are when you are young the better. Nobody expects you to have experience when you are young, what you have to focus on is skills.
    • In singing these include first and foremost, a beautiful voice.
    • Second knowing how to sing a legato line, which has to do with how one uses the breath, ergo 'support'.
    • Firm command of the top notes in your voice category. (Related to Technique)
    • Ability to sing coloratura.
    • Languages (This is for Americans particularly difficult)
    • Musicianship and
    • a good knowledge of the literature and the arts in general.
• Health:
  • Being healthy is very important.
    • Part of this is included under the rubric of weight and personal appearance.
      • People often complain about this requirement but the bottom line is that being healthy also happens to be important in life.
      • Pavarotti once said "I think when people say being heavy is an advantage in operatic singer...they are mistaken."
      • Looking good is important when being on stage and being a "good specimen" is one less thing the decision makers have to cross you off their list of potential hires.
•  Personality:
  • Being socially skilled is extremely important.
    • Decorum is highly valued in the field of opera. Many of the 'fans' and 'donors' for opera are people of note, business leaders, community leaders and so on. Like an actor, it is important to apply the right characterization for the situation. You aren't being ingenuous by doing this, you are simply showing that you can be a part of this niche in society with ease.

But, how do you start at the top of the ladder?

Well, let's consider the medical profession for instance. In order to become a Doctor you have to go to school the longest, do a lot of apprenticeship type of learning situations, and get experience being around other doctors who are already where you want to be. You take a lot of tests, and have to pass a lot of boards to even be considered for hire. By the time you have done all that you are already practically 30 years old before you even get started in your own career.

Now, for singers, this process can start much sooner and you can be ready much earlier, but to start close to the top, there is a lot of grunge work to be done before. Now it isn't terrible work, but it is hard work, and you want it to be hard because that is what makes you good.

So, no matter what you want to do in life it is important to get all of the prep time possible "IF" you want to be a top performer in any field. If all you want to do is work at Wendy's then this takes much less time.

Now, of course there are stories of huge successes that got that way early in their careers. Bill Gates, Elon Musk, Steve Jobs and so on...but they were able to work very hard and very focused on what they were doing and they developed things that became the world standard in each of their areas. They indeed studied and worked extremely hard to get where they were.

In addition they didn't do it alone. They all have a lot of employees that have done the above to become best at what they do in the area that they are a specialist in. The point is, you don't have to be Elon Musk to work for him, and he wants the very best to work for him. So if the Top is where you want to be you need to consider what it takes to get there.

• Who You KNOW!
  • Who you KNOW is very important in life.
    • Who you spend time with...
    • Who you are in a relationship with...
    • Who you meet...
    • Where you meet them...

The truth is, if nobody knows you they will not be able to...

• Hire you
• Trust you
• Like you
• Believe in you
• Be inspired by you
• etc...

Building relationships in high places does help. Being where the action is helps. You surround yourself with different people going to Southwest Kentucky  College than you do at Harvard or MIT. If you spend time on the back porch of school smoking cigarettes and reefer you will be surrounding yourself with people who work at Wendy's or at a factory. There is nothing wrong with any of that, or those people, but we are talking here about starting at the top of the ladder and if that is what you want to do, then smoking reefer with your buddies while the movers and shakers are out building a network of high achievers ain't necessarily going to get you there. Maybe in rock and roll or other music genres you can become a high achiever smoking reefer and the such, but that train will eventually come to a bad end from which recovering becomes the only thing you think about.

I think it is really very important to find a mentor and work with them a LONG TIME who knows the business of what you want to do that can give you the low down on all of these things. I know that I was clueless all of my life about how things worked, and how to go about building a career and a secure livelihood doing what I loved. Yes, there were this person and that person giving me advice all of the time, but I would have really benefited from having someone who could give me a plan about how to navigate the business so I wouldn't make stupid decisions and lose money that I had worked so hard to get.

The last thing you want is to be in situations that tear you down. Just like you should want to lift others up, you should be in situations that lift you up and not cause a lot of stress for you. Stay away from toxic relationships, toxic people, toxic atmospheres and don't get involved in gossip. All that does is reflect badly on you. A professional takes care of what is in their power to control and doesn't try and fix every wagon with a squeaky wheel that rattles by. You don't get paid for that.

Not everyone wants to be at the top. If you do, these are some of the things that will help you get started closer to the top than if you weren't aware of them and planning on using this knowledge to positively affect your career.

Most things are better at the top. The money is better, the help is better, the conditions are better, and the environment is better and you are working with people who want to be the best as well.

Success is like the mountains. In the valley below the towns are being rained on and it is damp and chilly. When you get higher on the mountains you move into the fog of the clouds and you can't see very well and everything is chilly and damp. When you break through to the top of the mountains all of that is below you, the air is thinner yes, only the fit will survive, the sun is shining brightly and the air is cold and crisp, waking you up at every turn. Clean, clear, positive. There are fewer people there and the ones who are there worked hard to get there.

When I look back at my life and consider my parents who loved and cared for me and my brother very much it is strange to me that they didn't embed these principles into us. Maybe they thought we would just 'get it' somehow. I don't think they ever saw themselves as being at a high level although my father was a PhD professor, a jet fighter pilot, a professional level athlete, and my mom a very intelligent secretary who could have done much more than she did out of her over intense sense of modesty.

They never said to me, you need to make good grades because it sets a standard for your life. They never asked much of me to perform at a high level in anything but did praise me when I did. They didn't give me a guide about what is important in life to become successful or achieving at a hight level or how to manage my money from an early age. They were good people and did speak power into me, but it all seemed like superficial things and I basically never believed them when they told me I was smart, or talented, or athletic or any of these things. I thought they were basically paying me lip service. It all seemed like a fairy tale.

I am grateful they never beat me down of course. They were good loving parents who never got a manual in raising children, although one could make the argument that because my fathers PhD was in Child Psychology and Development he would have some insight into it. But, I think that with his academical studies comes a false idea that you should never make a child feel bad about themselves, so it is sort of like he let a lot of stuff slide, as did my Mom in certain cases, in other ways not. I believe children want to know the difference between right and wrong although in the moment they certainly don't want it to be that way. Children seem to want to get by with things, when in reality, albeit unconsciously, they are testing the waters to be told what is allowed and what not.

There was always a loose plan of going to college that was just assumed but what we would do there or how to be there was never really discussed.

So, if you are reading this article no matter at what stage of life you are in, I think there are lessons to be learned, either as a youth, as a parent, and as a member of society. We are all responsible for our own level of living life. Nobody else is. We get to decide. But, we must know what is required and how to prepare and execute plans to get things done.

Starting at the Top of the Ladder is harder to do, but being at the Top is much easier to do than spending a lot of time trying to get there from the bottom.