I just came back from seeing Every Little Step, a documentary film about the re-making of A Chorus Line on Broadway. You get to see hundreds of the world’s most talented singers and dancers compete for 24 roles. The auditioners see their competition and the decision makers face-to-face. They have less than five minutes to show up, perform and have their fates decided.

The take-aways from the movie are enormous. First of all, Michael Bennett had such a huge vision, enormous patience and a way of sharing his message which enrolled the likes of Joseph Papp. After Bennett enthusiastically shared a before unheard of concept about how to ‘put on a show’, the founder of New York’s Public Theatre offered him and everyone involved in the project $100 a week to ‘workshop’ it until it became something.

Marvin Hamlisch, the composer for A Chorus Line, shares a few choice tidbits on how the show got tweaked and won the audience’s favor with some simple changes. For a while the audiences were leaving disgruntled. Listening to a respected viewer, they adjusted the story line and began receiving standing ovations.

Watching all of these outstandingly capable, beautiful and talented performers appear so vulnerably gave me pause. As an entrepreneur, most of my outreach/auditioning is done via cyberspace, phone or blogging. Tomorrow, when I pick up the phone to ask a satisfied client for a referral I’ll say a prayer of gratitude that there aren’t 12 other coaches there in the same room with me and him making the identical request.

Perspective can be a beautiful thing.