Creative people are a peculiar bunch… half of us are running around depressed, while the other half is on the verge of madness, trying to make the world a better place with their creations.
Some creative endeavors, such as writing, photography, or dancing, don’t require as many resources as, for example, recording a studio album or producing a feature film. But even these “lower cost activities” require us to keep the lights on and have our expenses covered in order to fully enjoy ourselves on this planet.
Naturally, money becomes a concern to many, if not most of us, at one point or another.
Hence, asking for resources to realize our visions and projects, or dealing with so-called gatekeepers, is what many of us will have to deal with sooner or later.
Just imagine you put all your energy, time, and effort into a project: You plan it out, every inch, every step, every detail… In your mind, it’s so real, you can almost touch it. So you take your little baby, wrap it up nicely into a cozy sales pitch, and take it to one of them… the “Gatekeepers”:
Those people who actually have all the right connections, the power, and resources, to make your little (or big) dream come true.
So there you are… with your one shot, one opportunity, no spaghetti, and you go for it: You pitch your heart out… You wait for the spark to catch a fire… for your vision to be shared… but instead, you hear a “No”… or even worse, not even that… Here you are again, preaching to the abyss…
I’ve lost count of how many times I was being told no over the years…
Even if it’s so close, even with the right project, in front of the right people…
There is always a reason, and I really can’t blame them: I am trying to make art, while the industry is trying to make a profit… which is fair enough, since this is the entertainment business and not my personal creators fund.
However, it can get frustrating when you feel like you have an idea with great potential to generate a steady cash flow as well… People are just not willing to risk their bonuses or livelihoods based on our little artistic outbursts… Apparently, this is even the case for more renowned artists, with verified track records…
So that begs the question: How do you deal with being told no, all the time?
Well, obviously, you could just hang it up and become a mere shadow of yourself walking through life, asking yourself what could’ve been… or you double down on your dream.
One of my all time favorite books is called “Start where you Are” written by a gentleman who goes by the name of Chris Gardner. You may have heard of Mister Gardner from a little movie called “The Pursuit of Happyness” starring no one other than Mr. Will Smith.
In case you haven’t heard of Mr. Gardner, he went from being homeless and sleeping on the streets with his son, to now owning a very successful financial trading and investment company, becoming a multi millionaire in the process…
Lesson #3 of his Book “Start Where You Are” is titled “The cavalry ain’t coming”.
It describes a lesson Mr. Garnder learned as a little boy watching an old western movie with his mom, in which the hero was desperately waiting for the cavalry to arrive in order to save him. While hopefully scanning the horizon, the hero of the story eventually had to realize that the cavalry was actually not coming.
He was on his own… and in order to survive, he had to become his own cavalry…
That story strongly resonated with me…
Every time we ask for resources to build our dreams, we’re basically begging generals to mobilize their horses in order to fight and win our battles for us. And in most cases, they ain’t coming… or even care enough to send us a carrier pigeon to say that they won’t.
Now, if you’re a single person that has to overcome all these adversaires on their own, you will have no chance but to resolve to metaphorical guerrilla tactics…
Meaning, you won’t necessarily be able to implement your vision in the way a multi-million dollar budget would do, and you will probably need to learn how to ride a horse plus fencing with a saber, while holding up a lightstand and balancing a boom-mic at the same time… But you most probably still can realize a version of your vision and take a step closer to your destiny…
Even if it is smaller than initially planned. And if you think that small things don’t matter, go and try to sleep with a mosquito in your room.
Maybe you have to downgrade your vision… maybe you have to make changes… but if you truly believe in it, and you feel as if it would make the world a better place, then don’t abandon it.
And the more you work on it, the more it will take shape, until you realize that you’re starting to become your own cavalry.
The second point from Mr. Gardner’s book that I want to share is his concept of the 5-C’s Complex.
The 5 C’s represent the five most necessary parts of a successful plan… because in life you have to have a plan… Therefore, in order to forge a great and successful plan it has to contain these five aspects:
It has to be:
1) Clear:
You’ve got to be very clear on what you want. Take your vision and write it down in all detail. Hang it on your wall or keep it where you can see it, to stay on track. Without knowing where you’re going, you have no other choice but to end up lost. Be clear on your goals.
2) Concise:
Your plan has to be concise and considerate of all possible eventualities. If Z is the destination and going from A to Z does not work, have ideas for the other letters of the Alphabet. Just make sure your destination is fixed.
3) Compelling:
Your Plan has to be compelling to yourself. You have to love whatever you’re doing in your endeavour. There will probably be a lot of long days, even longer nights, and lonely moments while trying to bring your vision into reality. However, if you truly love what you do, you will find enjoyment in it. NAS once famously rhymed “I ain’t never worked a day in my life” all while he is building up Venture Capital funds and finishing world tours. Why? Because he loves what he’s doing. Make your Plan compelling to you!
4) Committed:
This ties very much into Point No. 3: You have to be committed to it. Discipline is something that I will touch on in more detail in the future; however, your commitment to the cause, to the plan, to your vision is crucial in order to stick through with it. Having a new plan every other week won’t cut it. When Cesar debated on whether to cross the Rubicon river to face his opponents, one soldier allegedly just ran up and blew a trumpet to start the march. According to legend, Cesar replied, “Alea Iacta est”.. The dice are cast (although he most probably said it in Greek (anerriphtho kybos)). If you’re like your plan, cast your dice!
5) Consistency:
The last ingredient for a successful plan: You have to stay consistent with it. While I was working on my own passion project (of which the teaser should be online soon btw), I always thought of myself as Sisyphos. Sisyphos is a prominent character in Greek mythology. He was condemned by the Gods to roll a giant boulder to the top of a steep Mountain, just to see it roll down again by the end of the day. Again and again ’til eternity. However, there are several variants of the myth, and in some Versions, he actually makes it to the top and his pain is alleviated. That is the Version that I really clung to and which gave me the mental conditioning to keep on pushing my boulder up the hill.
I want to end this by telling you a story about one of the times that I was being told no:
In 2018, I wrote a spec script for a pilot episode of a show called “Ticka”, which can be translated to “Pusher” or “Hustler”.
It was inspired by a real life event, in which several German supermarkets reported that they’ve found massive amounts of packaged and uncut Snow / Blow within their banana crate deliveries, which was funny enough by itself.
I read the article and I thought to myself, wouldn’t it be hilarious if at one of these supermarkets a complete loser working as a cashier just grabbed a Ki or two and would try to push it? Without having a clue on how to actually do it?
The script basically wrote itself and I thought it was funny, fresh and in a weird way relatable. People found the premise funny, so I figured I’d just pitch it.
So I have no agent or anything, and at that time, I didn’t know anyone in the German Film Industry… but I know how to reverse engineer an e-mail address…
So in my naiveté, I just picked a few Production companies and institutions and just sent out my Pitch as well as the script.
I am not going to say no names, but one of the production companies fairly recently at that time had one of the most successful german comedies ever, so I figured it would be a perfect fit for an action comedy show. I managed to figure out the e-mail Address of the CEO of the company and just sent him a Message, introducing myself, giving him the Logline of the show, and my script.
The logline stated:
“A teenage nerd/loser starts selling flowers by a crazy coincidence to impress the woman of his dreams – and ends up getting into serious trouble with big shots from Berlin’s underworld.”
I got a few replies telling me they don’t consider non solicited material, and I figured yeah, that’s it… But on the next day, I received an E-Mail from the mentioned CEO of the production company at 2AM in the morning, stating that he will forward the script to their Development Department and will get back to me. The best part is, he placed a few of his colleagues in copy, so I knew he was for real, and not just brushing me off.
Plus, I knew it would be a good fit because, based on the movies that they produced, his company actually has good taste, which can’t be said of many production houses, unfortunately.
So I sit back and wait, and approximately one month later, I get an E-Mail from the said company, stating that they had a meeting and enjoyed the script a lot, but it’s not the right fit at this time.
So basically another no…
But I was so happy, because they liked my work and someone actually took time out of their day to discuss on whether they want to produce it or not.
Now, I moved on to different things, and fast forward 1 1/2 Years later and Netflix releases a show called: “How to sell D***** Online, fast”. And guess what the premise / logline of the show is?
“To win back his ex-girlfriend, a nerdy teen starts selling e***** online out of his bedroom — and becomes one of Europe’s biggest dealers”
Needless to say, it becomes one of Netflix’s biggest shows of all time.
Now: Just to be clear here – I do not think that Netflix, the mentioned production company, or anyone else ripped me off on this one.
I believe that we, as creatives, are vessels for ideas. If an idea wants to be born, it will find a way, one or the other… All we do is go and paint these ideas on a canvas through our own special lenses as a channel.
Plus, the show is based on another real life event, and the internet did not play a part in my storyline, but dang I was close…
So all in all, what I am trying to say is:
Carry your rejections and No’s like a badge of honor. They mean, you’re trying! Working… evolving… you’re not passively sitting back and watching life pass you by.
You go out there and you fight for your visions… your dreams… your inspirations… and like I’ve tried to show with my little anecdote, just because someone does not believe in your idea, it does not mean it’s not great… All it means is, you have to push that boulder a few more times up that hill!
You don’t have to wait for the cavalry any longer… because everything your searching, is searching you!
Love and Light,
San
