Be findable

“But isn’t that self-promotion?”, said with a disgusted face.

Or, equally disgusted: “Ugh, that’s bragging. Narcissistic. I don’t want to do that.”

Or, frustrated: “Can’t I just do good work?”

Whenever I hear one of these, I want to quote or, better yet, link to a snippet of an episode of Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee.

That’s right. There’s wisdom about doing good work and getting rightful recognition for it contained in episode 11 of season 10 of Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee. Alec Baldwin is the guest.

But I could never quote nor link to the dialogue I wanted to share, because it’s stuck inside Netflix. So, back from vacation, I sat down and transcribed it.

Here it is, Seinfeld and Baldwin talking about the fallacy that’s thinking “just doing good work” is enough:

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Baldwin: In this business, which is filled with people you and I know, are very talented people, who aren’t going to make it.

There’s a higher degree of luck involved in this than other businesses, I think. You know?

Seinfeld: No.

Baldwin: Okay. I was afraid you’d say that.

Seinfeld: What I find is, the talent is there, but it’s not cultivated. It’s assumed— It’s thought of as some magic carpet. “Well, they’ll find me. They’ll take me there.”

Baldwin: What I used to call the Show Business Commission.

You’re in your apartment watching TV, and they knock on the door, like “Jerry, I’m Dave Addison from the Show Business Commission. We understand you got enormous talent and tremendous potential and you don’t know what to do with it, and there’s really no bridge or no other conduit which will carry you over to the next level, which is why we’re here. We’re the Show Business Commission. We’re here to sort of collect you up.”

Seinfeld: “You keep a very low profile. I haven’t even heard of you.”

Baldwin: “I have to say when your name came over the wire, we were stunned. We’ve heard absolutely not a peep about you. They tell us you’re very talented, and we said, ‘We’ll take your word for it.’”

Seinfeld: Yes.

Baldwin: Someone’s gonna come and get you and carry you there. No, they’re not.

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Austin Kleon, in his delightful Show Your Work!, said it like this:

I hate talking about self-promotion. Comedian Steve Martin famously dodges these questions with the advice, “Be so good they can’t ignore you.” If you just focus on getting really good, Martin says, people will come to you. I happen to agree: You don’t really find an audience for your work; they find you. But it’s not enough to be good. In order to be found, you have to be findable.

It’s not about screaming “I am the greatest” from the rooftops, it’s about saying, hey, I did something, I think it’s neat, you might find this interesting.

It’s not about playing up something that isn’t there, it’s about making sure that you and your good work are findable.

Who knows whether a tree makes a sound when falling in the forest with no one around to hear it. But I know that great work can’t be appreciated when no one can find it.