The John Williams Effect

Awards. Everyone who gets them loves them! After all, who does not want recognition for their hard work? Who would not want to be praised for excellence in their profession or field? Yet the striving for awards can also lead to an unhealthy obsession with perfection, as though only by winning undisputedly or being a champion of something can one be considered talented.

In the entertainment industry, the Academy Awards, also known as the Oscars, are some of the most well-known and prestigious recognitions one can get. Every year, the best in cinema come together in the U.S.A. for this high-profile event: not just the top actors and actresses, but also the top directors, editors, screenwriters, and even film music composers.

If you have not heard about the composer John Williams before, you may wish to pause from reading this article and listen to some of his works first. He is arguably the best in the business, having composed the scores for iconic masterpieces of popular culture over several decades: think of the iconic leitmotif of the Indiana Jones movies, Hedwig's Theme from the Harry Potter films, the scores for Superman: The Movie and for Memoirs of a Geisha, and—who would forget—the menacing Imperial March associated with Darth Vader from Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back.

However, even he does not always bring home an Oscar. For all the memorable compositions enumerated above, every single one worthy of a nomination, they each failed to bring home the coveted award. At the 95th Academy Awards, the host, who is also a comedian, had a bit of fun by teasing the master composer during the opening monologue:

"Only Walt Disney has been nominated for more Oscars than John Williams; he’s been nominated fifty-three times, and… nominated fifty-three times… he’s won five. Which, honestly, is not that great." - Jimmy Kimmel

The joke above is funny mainly because the last part is not true: it absolutely is a great record, even if John Williams did not get an Oscar in 2023 for his work on The Fabelmans either! To put things in perspective, many composers would be honored to be nominated even once, let alone fifty-three times, and winning even one Oscar can be considered a lifetime achievement. Most people could just wish for that kind of consistent track record, even if it is not seen as “perfection”.

We may often hear the well-known saying “practice makes perfect” while in the pursuit of self-development. Like a good musician or composer, who does not, after all, want to strive and perfect what they love to do? Yet longing for perfection can also be somewhat demotivating and daunting. How exactly should one feel about the struggle for perfection? Indeed, if no one is perfect, why should one practice?

In the German language, however, you may instead hear “übung macht den Meister”, which can translate in spirit to “practice makes the master”; for the master is not necessarily perfect… instead, it is through hard work and dedication that one becomes better at their craft. In a world where we crave perfection or the highs of a glorious end result, it is all too easy to forget that the journey itself toward the goal can build character and give meaning to an achievement.

If “perfect” is a peak adjective that describes something flawless or not needing improvement, then no one wants to be called “average” in comparison... though perhaps what we actually mean is we do not wish to be labeled as “mediocre”. Being called “mediocre” would make many people upset, especially those who do not want to limit their lives to aggregated numbers and statistics, and certainly those who are in the pursuit of lofty heights and being regarded as “perfect”.

Back to John Williams: is it fair to describe him as “mediocre”? Certainly not. The reason we can say so is that, unlike Jimmy Kimmel’s joke, we should be looking not at the forty-eight times that he did not snag the golden icon, and not even the five times he did, but rather the fact that he consistently got himself nominated for Academy Awards in music over the course of a long career.

For, in data analysis, what we often mean as an “average” would be a repetition of numbers, and an average value that can represent the constancy of effort. This repeated recording of numbers over and over again can show improvement, or it can show how well a person can be reasonably expected to work.

A quick internet search and simple math will show us that John Williams composed music for his first feature film in 1958, so by the time of this writing, he has been active for about sixty-five years. By purely mathematical averages, therefore, John Williams gets nominated for an Oscar roughly once every 1.22 years, or 65 years divided by 53 nominations. That means he produces potentially award-winning work with incredible regularity, a feat that many composers merely dream of achieving.

In most cases, a person’s overall work performance or output can be represented by an average value, such as those seen in performance reviews, survey ratings, and so on. Not all averages, therefore, are mediocre! Some average values can be rated as quite high when compared to others, or even given rankings or tiers. Case in point: one could barely imagine how incredibly large the asking price would be to have John Williams, with such an amazing track record, compose a soundtrack for their film.

In the end, however, we tend to become the average of the effort we put in, and there is nothing wrong with that. There is no doubt that exceptional work is to be celebrated… though one should appreciate the process of getting there, too, and of making a higher average in pursuit of mastery. Perhaps we should do away with ideas of perfection altogether; even those less talented or who are simply in the process of betterment may yet be on a road to something more.

Not everyone will be the next modern-day Richard Wagner or Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The danger of looking at John Williams and his stellar record is that we may think that even his average is not good enough. What then of the many musicians who spend unheard hours of toil to churn out quality work? No, like those many who have yet to rise into the limelight, the trick is not to be blinded by unrealistic standards of perfection, and instead, accept that we cannot always be the best… and that we must continue to learn and improve.

Though not everyone will enjoy the prestige of consistently high ranks or constantly superb recommendations, that is not something to be ashamed of. Yes, the market economy demands innovation, improvement, and the pursuit of ever-better goods and services, but it also needs to cater to the various wants and needs in society. Everybody has a place. Constant improvement is thus the business of everyone in a state of healthy competition, and as important to budding musical talents as it is to masters like John Williams.

Indeed, practice makes progress: regardless of where you are, what you work as, or whatever else you do for a living, you are most definitely offering something that someone out there needs right now. As you grow in skill, so too do you grow your value. What is most important is to understand the deeper nature of what you deliver, and to constantly strive to become a master of your craft. Perfection can wait.

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By Popular Demand is the author’s personal column on LinkedIn. It combines topics in the fields of economics and business with witty wordplay and lighthearted references to popular culture. The views or opinions reflected in these articles are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of his current or former employers, nor any affiliated member firms.