Archie Bunker Was Nobody Without Jerry Mayer
Archie Bunker, that lovable (???) bigot, was nobody without people like
Jerry Mayer.
Who was Jerry Mayer? He was just one of the many writers who put the
words into Archie Bunker's mouth week after week.
Don't get me wrong, Carol O'Connor was a great actor and he will always
be remembered as Archie Bunker...but he couldn't have done it by himself.
He needed great writers to come up with scripts that made us laugh and
think about our own prejudices. He needed a terrific group of co stars to
play off of. Jean Stapleton was pure genius in the role of the "dingbat"
Point is, Archie Bunker didn't do it himself. For that matter, Norman Lear,
the genius who created this show, also didn't do it himself. His words (he
wrote many episodes himself) would have meant nothing without such
talented people to deliver them.
The bigger point is this, and it's an important one.
In our business, there are many things that have to get done on a daily
basis. I won't get into them all. You know what they are, including web
design, graphic design, copywriting, article writing, list building and on and
on. Some of these things we're going to be very good at. But some of
them, we're about as inept as the sound man on the All In The Family set
trying to write an award winning script.
If Norman Lear tried to do it all himself, he would have had a total failure
on his hands. For that matter, had he not had the sense to get Carol O'
Connor, he still might have had a failure on his hands...with all the other
talent that show had, in front of and behind the camera.
If YOU try to do it all, well, you might be able to get away with it. After
all, running a small home business isn't quite as involved as putting on a
TV show, but with each thing that you insist on doing yourself, especially
things that you're not that good at, you have more of a chance of
failure.
The key is to take stock of what you do well and what you do not so well.
The things that you do not so well, get somebody else to do them for you.
Heck, for that matter, if you have the money, even things you CAN do well,
you're probably better off getting somebody else to do them for you in
order to free up more of YOUR time to do things that will bring you in
more money.
Think some of the top copywriters don't hire other copywriters to write
their sales letters for them simply because they want to spend the time
doing something that will make them money instead of slaving over a sales
letter? Go ask them. They'll tell you.
Were it not for people like Jerry Mayer (go look up what classic episode
he wrote) Archie Bunker would have just been a character name.
Think about what you might become with people LIKE Jerry Mayer.
It's certainly worth considering.
Bare Murkage.........
Bare Murkage.........