Today is our wedding anniversary* and so today of all days, I think it’s appropriate to highlight the significance and importance that having a supportive partner makes in this most capricious of career choices.
In 2010 I read Alan Sugar’s book ‘What You See Is What You Get’, and I had one huge take-away from it; and that was, ‘you can’t hope to succeed in business until you get your home life sorted out’.
From a working lifetime in film and television, I know how hard it can be on our ‘other halves’. Whilst we are busy and driven by our careers, it can be frustrating for our partner; and in the end, prove to be too disruptive for some marriages to withstand. I speak from painful experience.
It takes a special trust and understanding on both sides of an emotional relationship to strike a healthy balance.
Heather and I had known each other since childhood. But after she had moved to the Southern hemisphere in her 20s, we met again in the UK – by chance – in our 40s, at a time when Heather was usually living 10,000 miles away in Australia. My marriage by then was unravelling under what proved to be the intolerable strain of my work commitments… And I mean to imply no blame on anyone but me by saying this.
It took 5 years of planning, wishing and hoping to somehow be together with Heather, but we achieved it, and without doubt, my audio post-production business became more successful because of Heather’s unfailing support; particularly when circumstances out of our control forced the business to transfer the studios to home. Somehow, we managed to take it in our stride.
Resilience can arise from experience and self-confidence; but having someone who is always on your side is the best secret weapon anyone can possess.
I’m a coach and I can be one of those people.
The waiting list for my coaching services and details of my coaching content, including how to download my free eBook on the benefits of coaching for creatives, awaits you here:
www.soundproducer.com.au/coaching
(*18 years together, 14 years married. Thank you Heather, from the bottom of my heart, thank you.)
Pictured: Heather with the utterly delightful Malala Yousafzai, who became a frequent and treasured visitor to our Birmingham studios; and with the colossal actor Martyn Ford, who is comfortably the tallest person to ever record ADR in my voice booth.
