The moment I got my first “big break” was weird.
A lot of things happened that I never expected. Only years later did I realize that the results I found were extremely normal.
At the time, I was still in North Carolina. I had just finished my very first independent feature film, spending a month and a half around winter pulling 12-18 hour days. I literally did every job on set short of directing, operating the lead camera, and acting (though I was asked). In many ways, it was boot camp for me to the realities of doing entertainment work for a living. It wasn’t easy, and every day my family questioned why I was doing it.
But I kept going, and that work landed me an opportunity on another movie.
The crew for that movie needed hands, so I invited all of my college friends who were dying to work in the movies. We’d spent 4+ years previous staying up all night talking about what we would do when we “made it” and debating the merits of music, movies, TV, and games. We had the most accurate taste (so we thought). I expected at least one of them to jump on the ship with me – all that it required was quitting a job at Wal-Mart and dropping everything to make the dream real.
None of them did it. To this day I’m the only one working full time in the entertainment industry.
Weird, right?
Once I was on set, it got even more weird.
Every day, I woke up, went to work, ate and lived with the crew. We got 1, maybe 2 days off a week depending on location availability and schedule. We had to do some overnight shoots too.
Suddenly I went from steadily being in touch with all my friends, to not checking Facebook or my texts all day.
I got to know the people I was working with really well and made some great friends – while falling out of touch with my film-buff friends.
And yes – until movie #3 – my family still grumbled about my chosen profession.
So, what I’m saying is, I “found my calling” and lost my family and friends.
That’s uncomfortable, no?
Make Something
Things didn’t permanently stay the way of the cliffhanger ending there – but they did permanently change. I fell out of touch with some friends pretty permanently, I gained new ones, and my family eventually came around to see that what I was doing with my life was an actual career.
But the most important part of the initial experience of “getting in” was learning the line where one becomes a professional.
Where I stopped looking at Facebook because I didn’t have time to. I had no idea what movies were out, what games people were playing, what TV was big, what was even going on in the news. I was too busy, too consumed with creating with this gang of people.
It happened over and over again this way. Once the real work started – everything else fell away.
There was no choir of angels singing the hallelujah chorus when I went to work. There were overnight shoots that sucked, dealing with difficult crew or cast members, being in extremely awkward situations, making sure I got paid, and the all important finding of the next gig.
Most importantly, I was too busy showing up every day to care about anything else. I had to – or the tiny foundation I’d built would fall away because I was sitting at home and not out making something.
You Don’t Care
I’m convinced that most of us don’t take ourselves or our work seriously enough. Let me explain that.
I don’t mean that you don’t put your heart into your work enough.
I don’t mean that you don’t give your work enough personal meaning.
I don’t mean that you’re not “passionate” enough.
I mean that you don’t care about yourself and your work enough to sit down and do it every single day even when it sucks, when you’re uninspired, when you don’t want to, and what comes out of your hands and brain sucks.
If you only care enough to sit down when you “feel it” or when you’ve got an idea – you don’t care enough. You’re not serious about being a professional.
Before I was a professional filmmaker – I was a professional line cook. I showed up at my job every day until the store got renovated and I was let go. It sucked, but I cared enough about myself and getting paid to show up.
Your “passion” is no different.
Sometimes going to work on games sucks.
Sometimes working on movies sucked.
Literally every job I’ve had at one point or another – awesome or not – has sucked.
That includes writing for you, making video courses and other content. Sometimes I don’t want to do the work or I have no idea what to do.
So I screw off and I make excuses – until I realize what I’m doing, stop, and get serious again.
Required Reading
You’re going to read two books this year. This isn’t an option – I’m not asking you to do this. I’m telling you – if you take yourself and your work seriously, you’re going to read two books.
I don’t care if you’re bad or slow at reading, if you don’t know how to read, or anything else (I’m serious).
I don’t care if you’ve already read these books – read them again.
Go buy The Obstacle is the Way by Ryan Holiday and The War of Art by Steven Pressfield. They’re masterpieces, you should thank both authors.
I imagine you may have seen yourself in some of my writing – today or otherwise. You’re likely either someone who drags their feet and has never found whatever your version of “success” is yet – or you’ve tasted it and you still struggle with being consistent.
Those two books are going to set you on the right course, immediately. They don’t beat around the bush, they’re very real, and probably the most accurate takes on what living a “successful creative life” looks like.
I promise, it’s not always pretty, but it’s good.
If you enjoy those, you can take in a 3rd book – my Quit Aspiring – as well.
I write to you and and create for you for two primary reasons – being 100% selfish, and tossing you a life line to figuratively “quit your Wal-Mart job”.
In one way or another, I know you well – because most of you who stick around with me are partially like me. Just like I know that though I’ve done some pretty fantastic things by most anyone’s standards – I still have a lot left to do.
I know that counts for you also. It’s true whether you’ve done a lot, or nothing at all. You can reach higher than you think you can.
Go buy those books, and push yourself – just a little bit.
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