This time I will not write about business related feedback, but it will still be about feedback. Feedback that I received some years ago and it made my day. I think it’s been almost 28 years ever since I came across beatboxing. Back in the late 90s hip hop culture was a thing here, and along that came graffiti, rap, skate, bmx and beatboxing. Out of all the above, I think that the activity with the less cost was beatboxing. I fell in love with it, because of its simplicity, because I liked making music and because it was harmless and fun. Some guys from my hood were also beatboxing, however I believe that I was the best among them.

The point though was not who was the best; the point was to have fun. And we did. Even after several years, I was beatboxing for friends that were not even involved in the hip hop phase. They liked however to dance, to rap, to have fun in general. And beatboxing at a decent level was enough. Regardless of the acceptance and the commercialization of the scene, beatboxing remained something for the few. And I was very happy that somebody had managed to create a beatbox championship in our country, following of course some franchise from abroad. I did not care about the competition, I did not care about showing off. I did however care about having fun with people with common interests. Thus, I joined the competition. I could have gone as a spectator; however, I wanted to try myself on the stage. I bought a microphone to practice some tricks, I did some routines, but nothing special. I thought that as I did with my friends, I could freestyle.

Alas, things were not like this at all. Most of the participants were well prepared. They had routines, songs, patterns, you name it. And all I had was to improvise based on the interaction with the audience. But believe me when I say this, I have been performing in one way or another (professional presentations, music concerts, school presentation, theater) for almost 30 years; but this was the most unresponsive audience I ever faced. I had played with a broken guitar, with a mic that had no signal, with a presentation that got messed up due to the change of fonts; but I still managed. But here, they didn’t budge at all.

I got off the stage and watched the rest of the show. All the other guys were terrific; I understood that the beatboxing that was enough to have fun years ago, now had nothing to do with what was available on a competitive level. And there I got my feedback. Among the audience was an old rapper, still famous in the scene. He came to me, and he kindly told me that I should not give up. That it was a brave thing to do (I was the oldest to compete) and that the issue was that I was not prepared for this and that next time I should be better prepared. I thanked him for his support – and of course I never participated again ever since. The importance of this feedback was double. It proved that somebody was actually paying attention to what I was doing and that he could contribute something to my performance. The other thing was that somebody that I used to listen to as a kid, was now listening to me.

Conclusion:

Sometimes, despite of the efforts that we put in, the results might be disappointing. Moreover, we might not be able to see what is actually happening, and the help of an external spectator might be required. We should thank those that take the time to give us that feedback, they want to help us improve.

PS

During my early years as a professional I had the opportunity to join a workshop organized by one of the big consulting groups. While I did not make it in the final interviews, I learned several useful things. One of them, was that they recorded their presentations and afterwards they were analyzing them to finds ways to improve their performance. And of course they received valuable feedback from their supervisors. I never saw the beatbox championship recordings, however I had recorded myself several times during presentations and I made this analysis, something which has helped me immensely in my profession.