A good friend of mine said these words to me a couple of weeks ago. The “wazzup with you?” call had turned to some rumors of dirty deeds done dirt cheap in the live audio biz. Not gonna name any names or even give details on any situations. The idea here is not to call anyone out but to remind us all that in audio, as in life, what goes around comes around.
With the economy still sucking and gigs still canceling it is easy to see how one might go to “extra lengths” to secure gigs and keep some cash flow happening. And any talk of what is and is not ethical when it comes to securing business is tough. I personally do not subscribe to the school of thought that embraces “situational ethics.” It may be hopelessly passé, but I do believe in the concepts of right and wrong and I know that at least for me, I know when my actions fall on one side or the other of that line. I am not stupid enough to think that my actions always fall on the right side of that line but when they don’t, I may make excuses and protest but I know in my gut that I am on the wrong side of the line.
When I stay on the right side of the line I get to look at myself in the mirror and not despise the person who looks back at me. (When I know I am on the wrong side, I tend to avoid mirrors…) More to the whole biz point, when I have made the wrong decision for short-term gain, it has bitten me in the ass later every single time. And the few times I have given up that short term gain because it was not worth the “soul” cost I have—eventually—ended up with more than I would have had I made the wrong choice when it was offered.
Back when I was living in the L.A. area and long before I was at the helm of FOH, I did some work with a couple of smaller sound companies of the “run out of the garage” variety. Both of the guys who ran the show were Okay, and I liked them both a lot. And they stayed out of each other’s way. This is not to say that they did not compete, but they did not stoop to poaching the other guy’s gig, either.
At one point one of the two hit a real rough patch on a personal level—the kind of “rough patch” that would put the hurt to any of us. He started letting business slip and customers started to notice. A couple of guys from the other “shop” started to tell the owner that the time was ripe to swoop in and take all of the other guy’s gigs, put him out of business and decrease competition in the little market they both worked in. Note that this all went down in the midst of one of the cyclical downturns we see in the economy.
But being one of those “do the right thing guys,” he didn’t take that road. He stopped and remembered the times his competitor had bailed him out of a bad gig or subrented gear at below market rates for a low-budget gig. And when he got the inevitable calls asking for a quote from the competitions’ clients, he gave the other guy a head’s up phone call and at least gave him a shot at saving the gig. And his competition did not save all of them and, yes, some went to him.
That was a long time ago. In the end, the unfortunate fellow pulled out of his tailspin and is still around. His company is still small and he is still friends with the competition who would not pick him off when he was “low hanging fruit.” The other guy’s company has about tripled in size. He moved out of the garage years ago and has made a good living for himself and his family. The two guys who urged him to “go in for the kill” have been out of the business for years. I think they both ended up in sales…
But back to the beginning of this whole thing. Ours IS a small industry. Not so small that everyone knows everyone else, but close to it. I say it every time I go out to an event, a show or even an audio convention. I see the same faces, they may wear different hats than the last time I saw them but the faces are the same. Keep that incestuous nature of our business in mind and remember that people who have been given the shaft have very long memories and the clerk at the Bank of Karma keeps really good records.
