Leaving Your Fingerprints
Why just contributing what you’re asked isn’t enough.
Over Winter Break, I was watching the movie Frosty The Snowman 2: Frosty Returns (it's a real movie) with my family when the soundtrack caught my attention.
I couldn't exactly place it - but the music sounded both distinctive and familiar. But it wasn't that I had heard it before, but rather that it rhymed with something I had heard before. I spent the next several scenes listening more than watching.
Then it dawned on me - whoever composed the music in this movie must have been the same person who did the music for the 90s TV cartoon Rugrats!
I was immediately confident this had to be the case - but flipped over to IMDb to confirm. Yes, Mark Mothersbaugh was indeed the composer behind both!
This got me thinking about how Mark had left his fingerprints on both productions. He contributed, yes, but more than that - he left his distinct and recognizable style and approach to both projects. So much so that, more than 30 years later, an untrained ear like mine could pick up on it.
While you may not be composing music, it's no different for us in our work.
On every project, we have the opportunity to do more than simply contribute as expected - each day we can bring our unique approach, point of view, life experience, ideas, and style to the table.
We're offered the opportunity to leave our fingerprints on our work.
So there are two questions:
What do your fingerprints look (or sound) like?
How will you leave your fingerprints on your work?
Because there's a chance, 30+ years from now, someone will recognize your contributions and be able to attribute them to you.
Thanks for spending time with me in my workshop,
Eric
