Most of us have been told that life is hard. You have to struggle to get ahead. Nothing good in life comes easy. In fact, the easy way out is for cowards. Well, I have good news. Some things do come easy. They’re called “talents.”
Our cultural upbringing may have taught us that talents are allright, but if you really want to get ahead you need to work on your weaknesses. So some of us spent lots of time struggling to get our math grade up to a C, while letting our short story slide with a B plus. The result is a lifetime of reasonable competence, instead of outrageous brilliance.
In The Real Truth about Success, Garrison Wynn says that people who really accomplish something rely primarily on their unique talents. Whatever they can’t do well, they ignore, find a way around, or find someone else to do. They have accepted the fact that it’s OK not to do everything capably.
If you have a talent for voice overs you know it. It’s easy for you. Even so, I’ll bet there are some styles of voice over that you’re not that good at. Should you make the effort to become better at those styles, to become more marketable? The answer is, maybe.
Remember that every category of voice-over performance is full of people who are outstanding at doing that particular thing. It’s easy for them. So you have to ask yourself: will you ever be as good as they are? How much effort will it take? Wouldn’t your efforts be better spent improving the core talent you have, the one that came so easily in the first place? And won’t the world-beating samples on your demo suffer because you included a couple that were merely OK?
These questions are useful even if you’re just starting out. It’s important to be clear about who you are and what you offer, even on your first demo. It may be narrower in focus, but your demo will impress more if it’s consistently awesome from beginning to end. There will be time later to expand. But never at the expense of developing your true talent. So my advice is to focus on what comes easy. It’s your best shot at a brilliant career.