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EP 50 - Shamatuerism
6 Plays1 year ago
Recently, I read “Klondikers: Dawson City's Stanley Cup Challenge and How a Nation Fell in Love with Hockey” by Tim Falconer. It’s a hockey history book about the 1905 Stanley Cup challengers from Dawson City, the small, gold rush outpost-turned-capital city of Canada’s Yukon Province. After traveling for nearly a month across Canada, the Nuggets got absolutely obliterated by the defending champions in Ottawa.
While it’s a great hockey book about the early days of organized hockey, it also provides perspective on that period of Canadian history. Through the turn of the 20th century, the British colony of Canada was transitioning out of the Victorian era. This was an era when many held tightly to Victorian ideals regarding amateurism in sport. Getting paid in any sense got you labelled as a professional; an affront to the prevailing ethics of sport itself. This debate continued for many decades after in Olympic sports, and still plays out today with college athletes here in North America.
And what constituted being labelled a professional back then? Simply getting paid to play. Sometimes it didn’t matter if you got paid in a different sport. Hockey, and especially the Stanley Cup, were quickly gaining coverage and prominence. The desire to claim the trophy by any means necessary, and more importantly enjoying greater profits from growing audiences, brought money into the equation. Shouldn’t the players, often battling through grueling, bloody matches, get a cut of the action too?
Klondikers was a wonderful, well-researched book. Within it, I heard some amazing phrases from that era, including Shamateurism. In the context of this history, it described arrangements for players where they weren’t outright and obvious about getting paid to play. Instead, they might receive benefits for joining a particular team on the sly. This might be expensive gold baubles, or cushy jobs with employers with a financial stake in the teams and/or rinks.
But this term shamateurism got me thinking:
- What are the modern differences between amateurs and professionals?
- How have these perceptions changed over the past century?
- How has modern technology changed the definitions and attainment of professionalism?
On today’s episode, I share my thoughts stemming from this curiously fun phrase.
For more info and to download a free PDF of today's episode notes, visit: www.chriskreuter.com/CDWI
Join the Kreuter Studios mailing list: https://mailchi.mp/810367311f3d/ksbulletin
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Transcript
Bridging the Gap to Growth
00:00:15
Speaker
Crystal Deal with it focuses on bridging the gap between where you're at now and where you'd like to be. We'll explore wisdom and techniques from a wide variety of domains and industries, and apply them to your unique challenges. I love developing frameworks, processes, and storytelling metaphors that enable personal and business growth. Through actionable next steps, we'll build momentum and confidence. My goal is to help you clear roadblocks, do more with what you have, and realize the potential of yourself and your team. So throw your challenges my way in Crystal Deal.
Content Creation Without AI
00:00:50
Speaker
First, an AI statement that all elements of this episode are products of the author, Chris Kreuter, and made without the use of any AI tools.
Klondikers and Historical Context
00:00:58
Speaker
Welcome to episode 50 of Crystal Deal With It, Shamaturism. Recently I read Klondikers, Dawson City's Stanley Cup challenge and how a nation fell in love with hockey by Tim Falconer. So this is a hockey history book about the 1905 Stanley Cup challengers from Dawson City, the small gold rush outpost turned capital city of Canada's Yukon province. After traveling for nearly a month across Canada, the Nuggets got absolutely obliterated by the defending champions in Ottawa.
00:01:28
Speaker
While it's a great hockey book about the early days of organized hockey, it also provides perspective on that period of Canadian history. Through the turn of the 20th century, the British colony of Canada was transitioning out of the Victorian era, and this was an era when many held tightly to Victorian ideals regarding amateurism in sport. Getting paid in any sense got you labeled as a professional, which was an affront to the prevailing ethics of sports itself.
00:01:53
Speaker
This debate continued for many decades after in Olympic sports and still plays out today with college athletes here in North America.
00:02:01
Speaker
And what constituted being labeled a professional back then? Simply getting paid to play. Sometimes it didn't even matter if you got paid in a different sport. Hockey, and especially the Stanley Cup, were quickly gaining coverage and prominence. The desire to claim the trophy by any means necessary, and more importantly, enjoying greater profits from growing audiences, brought money into the equation. And shouldn't the players, often battling through grueling, bloody matches, get a cut of the action too?
Amateurism vs Professionalism
00:02:29
Speaker
Klondikers was a wonderful, well-researched book. Within it, I heard some amazing phrases from that era, including shamaturism. In the context of this history, it described arrangements for players where they weren't outright and obvious about getting paid to play. Instead, they might receive benefits for joining a particular team, but on the sly. This might be an extensive gold bubble or cushy jobs with employers with a financial stake in the teams and or ranks.
00:02:56
Speaker
But this term, shamaturism, really got me thinking. What are the modern differences between amateurs and professionals? How have these perceptions changed over the past century? How has modern technology changed the definitions and attainment of professionalism? So on today's episode, I'm going to share my thoughts that stemmed from this curiously fun phrase. And there's a link to the book Klondikers in the show notes.
00:03:19
Speaker
Defining amateurs and pros. The term shamature evolved out of the Victorian obsession with amateurism versus professionalism in athletic pursuits. It was pure rascality, as they might say back then, to sneak around the nebulous and inconsistent rules of amateur sports. The defining factor on being labeled as a professional was simple. Did you get paid?
00:03:41
Speaker
As I'll argue, this definition is still the most clear-cut and appropriate. Regardless of whether you're labeled amateur or professional, it's important to realize that just as it was for the hockeyists of 1900, most of us lack any control over how they're defined too.
00:03:56
Speaker
The market dictates what work and efforts are deserving of remuneration. Our future opportunities often hinge on positive critical reception of consistent, continuing performance, whether that be on the ice, on the page, upon a stage, or from our desks.
00:04:14
Speaker
So amateur doesn't mean beginner. Are you letting this definition hold you back? Feeling like an amateur might prevent you from deepening your connection and or commitment to your work. But this feeling is as useless as it is false, especially in creative pursuits.
00:04:30
Speaker
I do feel that in modern times, the term amateur has often come to mean beginner, someone lacking experience. Amateur really just means unpaid, someone who does an activity for pleasure rather than a financial benefit or professional reasons.
00:04:47
Speaker
And professional means someone earning a living in an endeavor frequently engaged in by amateurs. Ask yourself, would you do the work or play in the games even if the activity ended up unpaid? If you wouldn't do it unpaid, how do you expect to thrive doing it once money, possibly your entire livelihood, becomes involved?
00:05:08
Speaker
It's worth noting that generally, professionalism isn't something seen in every field. It doesn't mean any job where you get paid. The term exists for activities where there are people doing it for pleasure as well. Now, the amateur can spend a substantial percentage of their lives and career in their chosen endeavors. This makes their work no less or more meaningful than a professional's work. Again, being defined as a pro is often out of their control anyway.
00:05:37
Speaker
Going back to the hockey example from a century ago, you either played well or you couldn't. The better players would get chosen for the top teams, a fact that's still the case today. And it's the same for becoming a professionally published writer. It's a process that involves lots of effort, heartache, luck, time, and usually financial support from other sources.
00:05:57
Speaker
Even getting through that next level of professionalism, which usually means getting traditionally published, there's still the difficulties of generating a claim for one's work. No matter the quality of your work, getting it noticed involves even more effort, luck, marketing, and often the long tail of time.
00:06:15
Speaker
No matter how you look at yourself, becoming a professional still comes down to people's willingness to exchange money for your work. But what triggers a differentiator between amateur and pro? Is it the total revenue generated? The net profit made? The hours invested? The size of your network? The percentage of time you've expended on the effort? A gatekeeper who says, you're a professional now.
00:06:39
Speaker
The process of going from amateur to pro often will involve consistently showing up, dedication to excellence in your field, encouraging oversight, outside observation and critique, having a network and support system around the work, basically not being on an island, and primarily selling work and getting paid.
00:06:59
Speaker
And yes, nearly all beginners do typically start as amateurs, but that still doesn't make amateurism a similar label. The amateur is someone doing it for the love of the game, art, or work, regardless of their aspirations to professionalism, or lack thereof.
00:07:14
Speaker
Success in the endeavor is aided by maintaining diligent work, an open mind, and a willingness to experiment and learn, regardless of how your status in the field is labeled.
The Rise of 'Profulsional'
00:07:24
Speaker
So I wondered what the opposite of a shamature might be, and I came up with Profulsional, or the false professional. It's possible to see your work, no matter how unpolished, as worthy of the trappings of professionalism. Look at me, I wrote a book!
00:07:38
Speaker
There are a lot of vanity presses out there that are preying on this desire to appear professional and say that you're published.
00:07:45
Speaker
Is someone more interested in fast tracking their ability to tell others I'm a published writer than they are in the journey itself? Putting in the often daunting effort of building their craft to the point where they earn those first professional sales? Or to put it more bluntly, are they interested in the optics of status rather than the output they produce? This mentality can push people towards quantity over quality.
00:08:09
Speaker
And that often means little craft involved, such as editing, rehearsal, study, or responding to feedback. Just churn out content. Recent developments in AI tools such as chat GPT and Dali for images are supercharging people's perception of how easy it is to produce professional looking work.
00:08:28
Speaker
Even worse, it's adding a lot of noise into the marketplace, which makes it harder to discern the quality, human-generated work out there. Regardless of the paths used, dressing oneself in the trappings of success without acquiring the true equity of a pro is a fool's errand.
00:08:46
Speaker
And what is that true equity of a pro? To me, that means experience, honed skills, notice I'm not mentioning talent, leverageable industry connections, earned respect and critical acclaim, or to put that another way, fans. Invitations to perform at higher levels of one's field, having something on the line. For me, being a pro means the activity is one of the major methods a person uses to make a living.
00:09:15
Speaker
It's worth considering, is being a pro a binary yes or no definition? Or can it be a sliding scale? It's important to remember that being a pro is never a permanent state. If people stop paying for your goods and or services, when and how do you revert back to amateurism? Sure, you can say, I was a pro. And sometimes that form of status does carry meaning in the field. This is especially true in sports where there's a physical component.
00:09:44
Speaker
As I like to say in hockey, all roads lead to beer league.
00:09:49
Speaker
Therefore, you never want to rest too heavily on your laurels. If the award-winning writer stops writing, when did they shift from being a professional writer to someone who once wrote an award-winning book? Likely when publishers stop paying for their work. Which, in the case of the creator that stops producing, that time is when the royalty checks stop providing notable income. If the most valuable player stops pushing themselves to excel, they'll likely find themselves fighting just to stay in the league.
Gatekeepers and Innovation
00:10:16
Speaker
So let's touch on modern shamaturism. Who are the gatekeepers? In many fields, there are few, if any, gatekeepers or arbiters who can define you as a pro. Even in the Victorian era, it was the simplest that someone pay you at some point. Technologies like the internet, desktop publishing and print on demand have greatly reduced both the quantity and sway of institutional gatekeepers. It takes a lot of resources to be a major publisher, especially financial.
00:10:45
Speaker
Even with all the technology available, these bigger houses have built reputations, consumer trust, and a distribution network that enables them to greatly expand the reach of a person's work. They still serve an important purpose, but they're no longer the only path to professionalism, especially with creative work. This is where self-publishing and video streaming services like YouTube or even startup sports like Pickleball come in.
00:11:11
Speaker
If people exchange money for the goods, services, and or entertainment you produce or to advertise on your platform, you're on the path to professionalism.
New Pathways in Sports
00:11:21
Speaker
The pickleball example is actually really relevant here, as it's the fastest growing sport in America. There are professional leagues and associations springing up all over. There are various rule sets that are being debated and codified in a process similar to the birth of organized hockey and professional sports in general over a century ago.
00:11:39
Speaker
For example, the National Hockey League's first season was 1917-18, yet the Stanley Cup's first winner was in 1893, where it was awarded to the top amateur team in the Dominion, who then defended it against challenges issued to a committee of trustees. There have been rival leagues, leagues in other countries with their trophies, and multiple paths to professionalism. The fact that there are so many varied ways of becoming a professional is true in most fields.
00:12:08
Speaker
So the question becomes, can we approach our work like a pro, regardless of our actual status? We can choose to consistently work to the best of our abilities. We can study and learn new techniques to improve those abilities. We can seek mentors to guide us. We can attend industry events to build our network and learn from others. We can read and support industry publications.
00:12:33
Speaker
We can participate in industry discourse and opportunities. We can be open to unexpected opportunities. We can allow our work to evolve. We can allow ourselves to change tactics or even entire fields. We can treat people consistently well regardless of the perceived benefits to our own work. And lastly, we can choose to forego the traditional gatekeepers by forming our own businesses and taking our work directly to the consumer.
Mindset for Growth
00:13:00
Speaker
I'm going to end today's episode with a quote that I've always found great encouragement from. It comes from Shane Parrish's Farnham Street newsletter, which I've quoted multiple times in this podcast. I feel it's an awesome encapsulation of the mentality of those who are striving towards greatness.
00:13:16
Speaker
The courage to start, the discipline to focus, the confidence to figure it out, the patience to know progress is not always visible, the persistence to keep going even on the bad days. That's the formula. And with that, have a great day.
00:13:32
Speaker
If you feel that Chris dealt with it, I'd appreciate your support of the show by sharing it with someone who might benefit.
Call to Action
00:13:38
Speaker
Ratings on your favorite podcast player are also helpful in growing the audience. Visit chriscroiter.com for free downloadable PDFs, notes, and resources from today's episode. Sign up for the CDWY mailing list, or to send in your problems or requests for future shows. That's C-H-R-I-S-K-R-E-U-T-E-R.com. Or use the link in the show notes. Thanks for listening to Chris O'Neill.