Star or Part of the Team?

So, it is time for the Academy Awards. It is one of my favorite nights. Who will win? Who deserves credit? Who was the success? There are several groupings of people competing for the prize: Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Director, Screenwriter, Supporting Cast and so on. It doesn't stop there though. What makes a film the Best Picture? Is it the standout performance by the lead actor or was it a compelling story. Is it the director's mastery of cast and camera or was it the people who had the vision and the money to make it possible. After all it is the Producer who gets the award for Best Picture. The Producer owns the film.

I am faced with these questions in my own world. My design firm has suffered the loss of several talented people. We had finished design of several great projects that are now under construction. My lead architect on some of the work now has his own firm. My lead Interior designer now has her own firm. I had two interns that labored hard on some of these projects and worked out important details. Whose project is it? Who deserves the credit?

It has happened many times before in my life. I would interview for a school project while competing against a former employer and a former partner at the same time. My PowerPoint shows some of the same work. I tell the prospective client that "I" was key the the success.

It is like Brando saying that Francis Ford Coppola would not have a movie if not for his acting.

I was thinking about all this last weekend and went to church in Fort Worth. The preacher brought up an always interesting passage: "Now the body is not made up of one part but of many. If the foot should say, "Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease being part of the body........." (1st Corinthians 12)

The Best Picture is not BEST just because of the actors or the director, but also the writers, camera techs, and the people that made the movie possible.

The Best School is not best because of the designers only because if someone had not secured the project, or paid for the project or created the team or .....

We are not all hands.

If "The King's Speech" wins big this year it is for many reasons including the fact that once upon a time a King stammered.

So fellow travelers we are ALL in this together looking for a good idea to bring to life.