Professionalism Versus Craftsmanship

Craftsmanship and professionalism, at first glance, seem to go together. Being a professional means doing your job better than anyone else does it, right? Professional programmers spend as much time as they need making their programs perfect, and professional actors dedicate themselves 100 percent to portraying their character – or do they? I had a long talk with Mrs. Go-To Guy about this topic recently and came away with a different view of the relationship between craftsmanship and professionalism.

Mrs. Go-To Guy is an actress. She has a great deal of training in the craft of acting. She studied in college, at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in England, and with many different acting coaches in New York. She takes her craft very seriously and is very good at it (I first met her when she was performing in a show and was impressed with her talent.) She has honed her craft and prided herself on her acting craftsmanship. But, very recently she realized the enormous difference between being an excellent actress and being a professional actress.

The word craftsman often conjures up the image of a woodworker painstakingly fitting together the parts of a piece of fine furniture – taking care that doors and drawers open smoothly and the finish is perfect. People become nostalgic for this sort of ‘old world quality.’ The reality is this: if the carpenter spends 80 hours making a shelf that will only sell for $300, bankruptcy is just around the corner. A professional carpenter has to make enough money to run the business and earn a salary.

Professionals make money from their labor – that goes for acting, carpentry, or anything else. Mrs. Go-To Guy’s big realization was that a professional actress must focus as much on marketing and promotion as on breathing exercises and characterization. A professional actress knows how to promote herself and also works hard to promote the projects she is in. This means spending time thinking about the sorts of interesting stories you can tell on a radio interview that will be entertaining and also get people to buy tickets. The professional knows that their paycheck comes from full houses of happy patrons – great attention to craft doesn’t fill the seats by itself.

For the carpenter, web designer, painter, writer, programmer, and many other lines of work, professionalism is knowing how to balance your desire for excellence with your need to make a profit. It is spending time learning the marketplace where your work will be sold and understanding the needs of the customers who will buy it.

Is there a place for pure craftsmanship? Sure, it is the world of your hobbies and personal passions. There you can spend a lifetime writing one book, or painting one picture.

If you decide to become a professional, however, start looking at what the professionals in your industry are doing to improve their craft and their profits.

The Go-To Guy

Don’t give me the final say, leave a comment and tell us what you think.