Squidward And Plankton

An Audience Of One

If you watch the animated series Spongebob Squarepants, you will recognize the two characters I mentioned above.

Squidward is Spongebob’s neighbor and fellow staff at the Crusty Crab who is constantly irritated by the antics of Spongebob and his good friend Patrick while Plankton is Mr. Crabb’s nemesis and business competitor who is always scheming to steal the secret recipe for the Crabby Patty and put the Crusty Crabb out of business.

Squidward is known to think very highly of his artistic and musical abilities believing himself a maestro with superior talent and everyone else inferior and lacking in artistic taste. He is completely oblivious to the fact that his music is terrible deluding himself the best and everyone else lacking or uneducated.

In one episode, Plankton uses this to his advantage (as part of his endless schemes). He serenades Squidward – praising him as a musical genius and heaping accolades on him for his superior mastery on the accordion (Squidward’s instrument). Squidward is deceived allowing the praise get to his head and falls headlong into Plankton’s trap. Plankton gets Squidward to play his instrument everywhere in town including the Crusty Crab with Plankton leading out as a sort of ‘town crier’. Unbeknownst to Squidward, Plankton has secretly plugged his ears so he is undisturbed by Squidward’s horrible music while everyone else is groaning and telling him to stop. Squidward dismisses everyone’s complaints calling them ignorant and unschooled in the musical arts. He is completely besotted by Plankton’s deceitful ‘audience of one’.

This episode resonated with me and got me thinking. In life, we can be nudged on and encouraged to keep on, to keep trying even if all we have is an audience of one. So many instances abound of successful people who were rejected and told No so many times but kept going because someone was cheering them on, encouraging them to keep trying and not give up. Sometimes, that audience of one is all It takes to keep one going, to keep one firmly resolute on the goal of achieving their dream.

On the other side, (as in Squidward’s case) we must guard against an over-bloated sense of self-importance and overconfidence in our finite abilities choosing rather to remain humble and teachable while dedicating ourselves to learning, self-development, and self-improvement. We must not delude ourselves, taking on airs of self-superiority and lay ourselves open to deceitful people like Plankton who ultimately seek to destroy and profit from others’ downfall.

A healthy dose of balance is important to keep one grounded. This helps as one maturely assesses one’s abilities and capabilities, accepting where we need to study more, learn more, improve, and get better. It is equally important to allow assessment by others more experienced in our chosen fields who can teach, spot weaknesses, give enlightened input, and provide mentorship.

Thanks for reading

By Imabong Faminu

Imabong Faminu is the Founder/Chief Creative Officer at Words’R’Wine - a writing and content creation outfit. Connect with her on Twitter @IFaminu and on LinkedIn