To be a real success, you must relentlessly pursue your goals and the goal of your clients.

Be relentless— meet all your deadlines.

Be relentless— exceed expectations.

Be relentless— allow new ideas during your internal project reviews to enhance the project.

Be relentless— go the extra mile in in editing to merge audio and video into a syncopated dance.

Be relentless— try and find and use new tools that will give your work extra impact. Plug-ins for editing systems, or enhanced lighting tools. Sliders and stabilizers for shooting, and taking the extra time finding music that is perfect, just no “close enough for government work.”

One time, doing a company history for a major client, we had to show how their stores looked in the 1930s. We had pictures, but this was a video after all and if we had moving footage it would please the client and add to the audience impact. I spent a night at home looking at all the public domain footage I could find. Finally, on the Internet Archive, I found a video about visual signage that had been produced in the early 1940s by a merchandising company trying to encourage more usage of electric signs and advertising billboards. There, I saw drive-through footage shot various city main streets and the signage stores were using to advertise their brand (usually logos of the store name).

Lo and behold, I found two different incredibly clear shots of customers entering and exiting our client’s stores in New York City, logos big as life.

I didn’t tell the client; we just placed the shots within the 1930’s section showing various storefronts and surprised him with the new footage.

“Where did you get THAT from? I’ve never seen it!”

He was happy; we were happy; the audience loved the video and we chalked up a major success.

Be relentless.