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American Idol Worst Auditions & Rejects: Being Overconfident
By Tim Gross - Internet Business Blog | February 2, 2007
If you watch the American Idol preliminary auditions where they trot out the worst, most self-deluded, pathetic “singers” the country has to offer, you know how bad it is. It’s painful, laughable, sad, and scary.
I don’t mean the bad singing part (the world is full of terrible singers), I mean the level of self-deception that’s going on with the contestants.
The trend is this: The more overconfident a contestant is before going in, the worse they are - And the people who are guardedly optimistic tend to be the best singers.
How can this be?
-Because it takes some talent and experience to be able to self-evaluate yourself. Anyone serious about singing would participate in singing groups, take lessons, or at least seek out honest feedback from other singers they respect.
The dreamers just dream, and never even really try to get in the game, because deep down they don’t want to shatter their illusion. These people find excuses to ignore criticism that doesn’t match their own incorrect beliefs (as you see on the show).
Similarly, there are two types of entrepreneurs: The realistic doers, and the dreaming “fiddlers”. If you keep reading marketing advice, buying more books, reading blogs (although I’m glad you’re reading THIS blog!), starting a project but never finishing it to put it to the test, you’re a dreamer, and you’ve got to snap out of it.
You’ve got to learn something (not everything), then DO. Rinse & repeat.
On American Idol, the worst contestants were probably told by their friends and family that they were great singers. They were told that because
- Their friends & family don’t want to hurt their feelings
- Their friends & family may be tone-deaf and not know crap about singing
Guess what? For entrepreneurs, feedback from friends & family may be even trickier. You may have a terrible, doomed idea that your friends and family encourage you about, saying you good get rich…
OR, you may have a very good idea that friends & family talk you out of (instead of supporting).
Why Would They Do That?
Because for non-entrepreneurs, entrepreneurial activities are off their radar. What do they know about it? They may have tried something and failed themselves, and they rationalized their failure by telling themselves that no one can do it.
(IE, deep down, they don’t want you to be successful, because that would point out their own failure.)
Yikes, what a mess.
So the secret - whether you’re a singer or entrepreneur - is to seek out feedback and advice from people who are already successful at what it is you want to do.
Get qualified critiques. Yes, your mommy loves you (I hope), that’s why she’s the worst person to get career advice from, for a variety of reasons.
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