My Story
Most successful people, when asked to tell the story of their career and how they began to rise and overcome obstacles; you'll hear that they "don't like to be told no." That they "don't believe in failure." Or, they are against the advice of "getting used to failure because it limits the expectations they have set for themselves."
I'm here to say that sometimes the opposite can be true. Sometimes Failure, with a capital F, can be a good thing. Failure has helped define me as a Storyteller and led to me embracing all that I love about Horror, Sci-Fi, and Fantasy.
Let me tell you a story...
Not too long ago, I was having a conversation with a friend about the first fight choreography class he ever took and how the instructor continuously drilled them on falling. As he went on to describe the drills, I don't know if it was his accent or maybe it just was where my head was that day but, instead of hearing "Falling", I heard "Failing". So I tried to clarify. "Failing," I said. And, with a pearl of wisdom he didn't even know he had, he stopped for a moment and then said, "yeah, I guess you can think of it that way." " Because, sometimes we are so gun-ho about doing everything perfectly every time that if you don't learn to fall/fail, it can lead to serious injury." And that stuck with me.
Falling = Failure.
Why is failure important? Because failure teaches. It teaches us to try again. Who exactly is in our support system. How to handle disappointment. To trust our instincts and know what to do when things don't go perfectly the first time. In other words, Failure can be a good thing.
If someone had in 2009, told me that ten years later I would still be pursuing Acting and Film Making; naively, I would have quit because it meant that I failed. But, luckily that didn't happen. Instead, I embraced the fact that:
I am a Storyteller.
I truly love Sci-Fi, Horror ad Fantasy. I admit I'm a geek through and through. I feel that we can all connect to these stories on a very human level. Plus, we all like to think that we're the type of person who would step up during an alien invasion and save the day. Most likely we would cower in fear like a small child but, these stories give us a way of exploring the person we want to be. My vision for myself as a writer is to create whole worlds where the audience not only gets lost but, also say me too...
Even if I fail.
