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Much has
been written about what makes entrepreneurs successful, and in recent years,
many books have also been written about success factors in the languages
industry. We have also done quite a bit of writing about what one should do to
succeed in our fantastic industry. Of course, while there are no secrets (which we would gladly share if they existed), there are many factors that contribute
to one’s success. There are the basics, such as top-notch language skills and
outstanding writing skills for translators, business skills, and a pleasant
speaking voice and stamina for interpreters, among hundreds of other factors,
both large and small. However, we’ve recently started noticing that not too much
has been said about the importance of being humble. Allow us to elaborate.
We think
being humble and recognizing one’s limitations and shortcomings can be a
significant success factor. It keeps you honest and grounded, and if you are
humble enough (and smart enough) to understand that you cannot take on a
translation on say, quantum physics, it will serve you well because you won’t
deliver a terrible translation. It will also serve you well because hopefully
you will be humble enough to recommend a brilliant colleague who happens to
have a doctorate in physics from. The
colleague will probably be happy to get the business, and the client should
also be happy that you didn’t decide to wing it and instead sent her to the
expert. In addition, humility is good because it helps you build a good
reputation as an insightful analyst of your skills rather than show-off. We started thinking about this, and turns out that some of the translators and
interpreters we admire the most are also the first ones to say that they don’t
know something. Now, I don’t think there is much about legal interpreting that our court interpreting heroes Holly Mikkelson and Esther Navarro-Hall do not
know, but we really like how they rarely speak in absolute terms and always
allow some room for better ideas and other approaches. We have also noticed that
the most experienced linguists are the ones who know exactly what they are good
at and what they are not, while some newcomers tend to overrate their own
abilities, which is a dangerous thing. It’s important to have confidence, but
that confidence must be backed up by skills.
Humility
has served us well in our years as a court and conference interpreters. Judy gladly confesses that she was initially terrified of the new interpreting territory in court, but that fear and
that humility motivated her to acquire vocabulary at a fast pace. It’s not
normal not to be humbled by what experienced court interpreters know, and of
course you will be a better interpreter five years in than you are on day one. We have been flabbergasted by newcomers who insist that they know everything and that there
is nothing they can learn from experienced interpreters (or translators, for
that matter).
These newbies are of course wrong, and going around saying you
know everything certainly won’t endear you to your colleagues. Our best advice
to newbies and to my students is to be a sponge and to follow around an
experienced interpreter if they allow it (be sure to buy lunch!). This endeavor
is a bit more difficult on the translation side, but the ATA listservs are a
great opportunity to get advice from the best in the business, especially if
you are new to translation. However, it’s important to keep one’s ego in in
check and eat some humble pie if necessary – for instance, when an experienced
colleague disagrees with your own crack at translating a particular sentence.
Rather than getting defensive, take this valuable advice as what it is: a gift,
and then, 10 years from now, you can pay it forward. However, regardless of how
long we have been in the business: we are continuously humbled by all the things our colleagues know and by how much we still have to learn. We will never know everything, and that’s a
great gift for our brains and for our career.
What do you think, dear colleagues? We'd love to hear your feedback.
3 comments:
Humility, for sure. But I think the best advice you gave was being a be a sponge - learning from everybody/everything you can. Interesting article.
@EP: Thanks for reading and for commenting as always! Yes, we are huge proponents of being a sponge indeed, and we always learn so much from others!
It's a tricky balance to find: confidence vs. humilty. You guys explained it quite well!
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