...unless you do. And if you do need to be told this there may not be much hope for you but I am going to point it out to you, anyway.
You cannot successfully lie your way through a professional environment.
Not a real one. Not for very long. And if it's a comparatively well-networked and tight-knit environment like feature and tv production in any given market, once you wear the liar tag you may not ever be able to fully rid yourself of it.
Today's Exhibit 'A' is LC (not his real initials), who recently called me and indicated that he had received his long-sought-after Art Director's Card a couple of years ago, and was interested in my joining him on a project as Art Director #2.
Now even back when I worked with him several years ago, LC was clearly truth-impaired. Doing stuff like telling the Production Designer that a particular commercial font was a custom one he'd created himself, silly, easily-caught stuff like that (which for the most part effectively sank his career as a big-budget project Graphic Designer - coming off like a pathological liar does nothing for your reputation even if the endless lies are comparatively trivial).
Now, I don't know what the very first thing is that you would do upon hearing his news, but the very first thing that I did was sign on to the Art Directors' Guild website, bring up the membership directory, and note that in fact LC is not listed as an Art Director, an Assistant, or anything of the sort.
To me, this of course only confirmed what I already knew. But, what do you suppose I'm going to say the next time a real Art Director, or Production Designer, or producer calls me about this guy? Think I'm going to give this guy an endorsement? Or that instead I will offer a warning?
Of course not every liar is so clumsy and foolish as to lie to a member of a guild that keeps a membership list available for inspection on demand. But for the most part liars tend to think they're being much more clever than they are when putting the fib together, and the truth will out.
Anyway, like I said, something that you probably don't need to be told.
Unless you do.
You cannot successfully lie your way through a professional environment.
Not a real one. Not for very long. And if it's a comparatively well-networked and tight-knit environment like feature and tv production in any given market, once you wear the liar tag you may not ever be able to fully rid yourself of it.
Today's Exhibit 'A' is LC (not his real initials), who recently called me and indicated that he had received his long-sought-after Art Director's Card a couple of years ago, and was interested in my joining him on a project as Art Director #2.
Now even back when I worked with him several years ago, LC was clearly truth-impaired. Doing stuff like telling the Production Designer that a particular commercial font was a custom one he'd created himself, silly, easily-caught stuff like that (which for the most part effectively sank his career as a big-budget project Graphic Designer - coming off like a pathological liar does nothing for your reputation even if the endless lies are comparatively trivial).
Now, I don't know what the very first thing is that you would do upon hearing his news, but the very first thing that I did was sign on to the Art Directors' Guild website, bring up the membership directory, and note that in fact LC is not listed as an Art Director, an Assistant, or anything of the sort.
To me, this of course only confirmed what I already knew. But, what do you suppose I'm going to say the next time a real Art Director, or Production Designer, or producer calls me about this guy? Think I'm going to give this guy an endorsement? Or that instead I will offer a warning?
Of course not every liar is so clumsy and foolish as to lie to a member of a guild that keeps a membership list available for inspection on demand. But for the most part liars tend to think they're being much more clever than they are when putting the fib together, and the truth will out.
Anyway, like I said, something that you probably don't need to be told.
Unless you do.
