We appear to be in the middle of a talent dry-spell. At every avenue of popular media, there seems to be someone sitting at the top who many believe doesn’t deserve to be there. How do so many people of questionable ability seem to reach the top of their fields?
Simple, Dear Watson… They tried.
Tim Ferris mentions in The Four Hour Workweek that the impossible is usually easier than the mundane. One example he mentions is that Perfect Ten sitting at the bar. Everybody assumes that she’s out of their league, so they don’t even try. So everybody goes after the sevens and eights. The sevens and eights find someone, everyone else gets shut down, and both you and the Perfect Ten end up going home alone.
So many people are afraid of rejection they give up. People like those above figured they had nothing to lose, so they just went for it. Selena Gomez has said she realizes that she’s not Christina Aguilera, but when she was offered a recording contract, she took it anyway, just for fun, and she’s been doing really well ever since.
This Can Help You, However.
Whenever something like this happens, there’s always something of a snap-back that is referred to in some circles as “The Ed Wood Effect.” Ed Wood made some of the best “So Bad They’re Good” films in existence. Acting was clumsy, sets would fall over, and production looked like it was put together with a budget of spare change and hope.
Yet, his enthusiasm for the film industry and his lack of resources never stopped him, and he kept soldiering on. At the same time, other people saw his films, and were inspired to finish their works, operating under the thought of “Surely, I can do better than that!!!” I had my own personal inspiration when I learned that Tyra “can’t finish a sentence without using the word fierce” Banks now has a three-book deal.
This is your call to action.
If you’re talented in any of these fields, you will be warmly welcomed by those who are getting a little tired of what we’re being offered, and even if you’re not, you’ll still blend right in. You have no more excuses. The old line, “I’m not good enough,” clearly doesn’t work anymore, so what are you waiting for? Apparently, we’re in a dearth of talent, and we need you.
Brandon, I totally agree with you. I don’t let the success of others put me off, indeed it only spurs me on. “I can do better than that!” If I think that I have a duty to show people what I can do. I know I’m great, I just need others to discover me. Many thanks for your inspiration.
Cool post. And many times its true. Sometimes you just have to go for it, you never know what may happen!
Very nice! Inspiring! Just what I needed to read this morning to get this piece of shit writing I’m working on to my editor. Thanks!!
Great title, how could I not read it?
An uplifting piece that definitely got me rethinking about just how big the goal I am aiming for should be. Merci.
Thanks! I actually got the idea for this last year. I was in a literature class full of English majors (the most well-read people in the world) and right after reading Lord Byron’s best work, everybody started gushing over Twilight. (Say what you will about Twilight, but almost everyone I’ve met agrees that it is written badly: too much padding, repetitive, etc.) After I heard that and dislodged my head from the wall, I realized talent drought we were in.
Still, the movies are just about passible to watch.