On the Super Powers of Actors
My father and I on the first day of rehearsal for School for Scandal at the Stratford Festival in 2017.
I used to be a professional actor. So did my wife. My dad used to be an actor - he’s the guy in the picture with me. My mom still is. My friends are actors. My family friends are actors. Today, my clients are about 60% actors. The acting community is the only community I’ve ever belonged to. And I like to think it’s given me insight into…actors.
When I decided to move into finance, I approached it with the understanding of an actor. I guess that means applying for a job at the bank? Except there’s that whole “No marketable skills” problem.
It’s not true, of course. Actors are trained in the art of being present in a room. The art of reading people, gauging needs, and reacting. The real world calls them soft skills. And the real world doesn’t yet know how to identify soft skills on a resume. I got nowhere with the banks. Not a single interview.
It was the entrepreneurial side of finance that responded to me. At the time, there were firms that existed solely to train and develop financial advisors. No salary, no promises, just opportunity. Now you know, Tim, this job can be hard – you never know where your next cheque is going to come from. Right. A job that teaches technical knowledge, but demands you have the soft skills already. Suddenly, four companies were competing for me. That’s unusual for an actor.
If I’ve learned anything in the last ten years, it’s that acting doesn’t prepare you to be a doctor, an architect, an accountant. It prepares you to be a leader. A builder of relationships. Acting lines up with the skills of CEOs, politicians, entrepreneurs. The people who run the world. That’s not to say that every actor is covetous of being a bazillionaire. But those roles reward [handsomely] empathy, presence, emotional intelligence.
Which raises the next logical question. How do we get the rest of the world to see the value we bring? And the answer is I’m not sure. I think it has something to do with the entrepreneurial journey. Unlike “more traditional jobs”, entrepreneurship rewards soft skills. It demands initiative.
This is why I think every actor should try sales at some point. If only to hone the skill, and realize oh wow I’m MUCH better at this than I thought I’d be.
This is the part that nobody tells an actor. The world needs what we have, it just doesn’t know we have it.
See also: 50 things I do as a financial advisor
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