How to know when it’s time to call a professional
The miracle of the internet has allowed many of us to learn new things from the comfort of our homes. Want to learn to bake cupcakes? YouTube videos will show you how. Want to do some yoga? There’s a video or app to help. Want to learn the piano? Watch online tutorials or learn a few songs via Synthesia. This has helped many of us many things at a general level, but, if our new passion is to be pursued at a higher level, there comes a time when we need to enlist the help of a professional.
In a recent article, Andrew Eales of PianoDao asked, Who Needs Piano Lessons, Anyway? It’s a fair question, and one he answers quite well in this article. As a teacher, I’ve worked with several aspiring pianists who came to me for lessons after trying to learn on their own. In every situation, they sought an instructor because they’d met their own personal walls and couldn’t progress without outside help. And, in nearly every situation, they’d inadvertently learned some less-than-effective ways to play. Through training and experience, good teachers know the shortcuts. They know the most efficient way to do things, and their support and expertise is worth the price of hiring them.
A couple of weeks ago, I found myself thinking of the do-it-yourself pianists I’ve known when it became clear that it was time to move No Dead Guys to a new web platform. I researched my options, I read articles on transferring websites, and I reminded myself that because I’d created websites in both Wordpress and Blogger I felt pretty comfortable doing “tech-y” things. And then, the dangerous phrase “How hard can it be?” came to mind (see post on caution signs for musicians). That snapped me out of the Dunning-Kruger Effect I’d fallen into. I hired the wonderful (and patient) Flaco Zacarias, and then learned just how much I didn’t know about website building. 350 URLS, 160 entries, multiple tags, SEO improvement, design—he did (and in some cases fixed) it all. What would have taken me months to learn how to do (and, most likely, I would have messed up), he did in a week and a half.
How do we know when it’s time to hire a professional? Self-employed professionals and avid do-it-yourself-ers pride themselves on their resourcefulness and self-direction. But no one knows everything; we’ve got to know out limits. Part of being mature artists (and people) is knowing when to stop trying to do it all ourselves and let someone else do the heavy lifting. When faced with an impasse, it’s good to consider these questions:
Can I improve without outside help?
No matter how smart or talented someone is, everyone eventually hits their learning wall. We like to think that the learning “curve” is a smooth arc; in reality, it’s more like a staircase. We coast along for a bit at one level of knowledge and then we hit a wall. Some people quit here. Others begin to climb to the next plateau of knowledge, all the while understanding that this pattern will be repeated again and again. When we find ourselves unable to climb to the next level of understanding, it’s time to enlist the help of a professional.
What is my time worth?
So, you can probably figure it out on your own, but how long will it take for you to acquire the knowledge or ability you seek? We only have 24 hours in a day—do we want to spend this time pursuing dead ends, or is it good time management to hire someone to put us on the right path (and show us a shortcut or two)?
Can I afford to pay for the expertise I need?
As my father used to say, “I’m not made of money!” None of us is, but if we’re motivated enough, we can find options available within our personal budgets. As a friend once told me, money is energy—when you put money in a certain direction, you’re investing your energy. Some investments are worth it, even if we have to save or budget elsewhere to have enough available to pay for the advice we seek.
Am I committed enough to justify the expense?
When I was in my early twenties and struggling to start my music career while paying my student loans, I took two big leaps of faith: I purchased my grand piano and I invested in weekly lessons with a master teacher. On paper these were foolhardy choices, but both the instrument and the things I learned in those lessons are still with me today. Other times, when the answer to this question was No, this question freed me to walk away from things that I really wasn’t interested in doing.
Whether it be time or money, we owe it to ourselves to not cheat ourselves with false economy and to spend wisely when needed. It’s an investment in something we value. And, more importantly, it’s an investment in ourselves.
A big thank you for reading No Dead Guys, which now ranks in the Top 80 Piano Blogs in the world!