Friday, May 25, 2007
Calling Miss Manners:
One more, hopefully, helpful hint; Animation is a very small community folks. You really can`t afford to burn bridges. If someone goes out of their way to do you a favor, thank them for it or it will come back to haunt you later.
Last Friday I got a call from a friend who is part of a small well known studio. A teacher called him all frantic because she had to have a Class Outline, syllabus and equipment order done that day for a high school animation program. When I called her back she was all panic mode crazy and I felt sorry for her because I have been put into insane/unrealistic deadlines by front office school board apes any number of times.
She wanted answers to questions she didn`t even know. She wanted contacts. She wanted products. She wanted reviews. She wanted, she wanted, she wanted. And all of it right now, today. She had to have it today! She didn`t have time to buy my ebook that had the questions and the answers that she wanted. She needed it now, now, now!
She seemed very, very needy and in passing I wondered if a lot of the last minute deadline was her own doing but like I said, I felt sorry for her. So I scanned course outlines and syllabi and did something I never do, emailed her a link to my ebook for free. I gave her free access to 7 years of research and spent 3 or 4 hours assembling information and emailing it to her. In short I did her work for her, for someone I never met. Animation is a community and I give back to my community.
So was she grateful? I don't know, because I haven`t heard word one from her since I gave her what she wanted. (sound like some drunken prom date) So here we are a week later and what do you think my opinion of this teacher (sic) is now? What kind of help am I going to be offer up to her in the future?
All it would have taken to keep the lines open to my knowledge and contacts was a 30-second respond-to-email thank you. Animation is a small world. Your mother was right about the 3 little words. Please and Thank You go a long, long way. And if you don`t use them, chances are you won`t.
Larry Loc (ASIFA Blog Guy) ¶ 11:18 AM
One more, hopefully, helpful hint; Animation is a very small community folks. You really can`t afford to burn bridges. If someone goes out of their way to do you a favor, thank them for it or it will come back to haunt you later.
Last Friday I got a call from a friend who is part of a small well known studio. A teacher called him all frantic because she had to have a Class Outline, syllabus and equipment order done that day for a high school animation program. When I called her back she was all panic mode crazy and I felt sorry for her because I have been put into insane/unrealistic deadlines by front office school board apes any number of times.
She wanted answers to questions she didn`t even know. She wanted contacts. She wanted products. She wanted reviews. She wanted, she wanted, she wanted. And all of it right now, today. She had to have it today! She didn`t have time to buy my ebook that had the questions and the answers that she wanted. She needed it now, now, now!
She seemed very, very needy and in passing I wondered if a lot of the last minute deadline was her own doing but like I said, I felt sorry for her. So I scanned course outlines and syllabi and did something I never do, emailed her a link to my ebook for free. I gave her free access to 7 years of research and spent 3 or 4 hours assembling information and emailing it to her. In short I did her work for her, for someone I never met. Animation is a community and I give back to my community.
So was she grateful? I don't know, because I haven`t heard word one from her since I gave her what she wanted. (sound like some drunken prom date) So here we are a week later and what do you think my opinion of this teacher (sic) is now? What kind of help am I going to be offer up to her in the future?
All it would have taken to keep the lines open to my knowledge and contacts was a 30-second respond-to-email thank you. Animation is a small world. Your mother was right about the 3 little words. Please and Thank You go a long, long way. And if you don`t use them, chances are you won`t.
Larry Loc (ASIFA Blog Guy) ¶ 11:18 AM
