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Ang Lee and the uncertainty of success

jeffjlin.com

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Re: Ang Lee and the uncertainty of success

#81

Post by elfydanman »

waterlesscloud wrote: post #46

Screenwriter Terry Rossio (Aladdin, Shrek, Pirates Of The Caribbean series) has a long running website on screenwriting. His site reminds me a lot of PG, actually, since he has a lot of essays thinking about the concepts behind the movie business. He's talked there before about the time he spent preparing to become a screenwriter. His initial plan was to take 10 years to learn the craft. http://www.wordplayer.com/for…

Thanks for the Terry Rossio links. Good stuff - just ate two hours of my time.

Re: Ang Lee and the uncertainty of success

#82

Post by SideburnsOfDoom »

frabcus wrote: post #78
wwweston wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If you stick with it, you'll be successful. It doesn't matter where you come from, who your parents are, what you know, who you know, or how you look. All that is required is a choice I'm going to present a different picture of the world. I think it's a more accurate one. Not necessarily more useful. There is no such thing as a guarantee of success -- at least, for a definition of success that includes broad recogn…

There's a surprisingly good book by Seth Godin (sorry!) called The Dip about this dilemma. http://www.amazon.com/Dip-Little-Book-Teaches-Stick/dp/15918... The key thing, he says, about successful people is they quickly and accurately either choose to abandon something very very fast, or to pursue it through the depressing dip to sucess.

Hm. Does he prove that unsuccessful people didn't do that? If not, then it's just the usual selection bias.

Re: Ang Lee and the uncertainty of success

#83

Post by GBond »

skrebbel wrote: post #64
brm wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just for clarification, I think Wyo is this case is referring to Wyomissing, PA

I'm impressed that people on an online forum with visitors from all around the world think that abbreviating the name of some far out small town makes sense. I get NY and SF, but "Wyo" for anything other than Wyoming?

The likely explanation is Taylor Swift is famous and some people are familiar with the full name of the town she is from.

Re: Ang Lee and the uncertainty of success

#84

Post by exit »

thejerz wrote: post #10

I knew Taylor Swift growing up. Like Ang Lee, for around 6 to 8 years Taylor acted in musicals, sang at festivals, entered competitions, and recorded demos. She was bad at first (sorry Taylor!), but she kept working at it. Every day, she was writing another lyric, or taking another guitar lesson, or auditioning for another play, or switching voice teachers. The reason I knew her was that I went to school with her (sh…

clarity of purpose is a vanishingly rare stroke of luck

and even then we just don't hear much about the countless midwestern girls who sacrifice it all to the talent circuit but never amount to anything

Re: Ang Lee and the uncertainty of success

#85

Post by weeksie »

thejerz wrote: post #10

I knew Taylor Swift growing up. Like Ang Lee, for around 6 to 8 years Taylor acted in musicals, sang at festivals, entered competitions, and recorded demos. She was bad at first (sorry Taylor!), but she kept working at it. Every day, she was writing another lyric, or taking another guitar lesson, or auditioning for another play, or switching voice teachers. The reason I knew her was that I went to school with her (sh…

The problem is that there are a ton of people that do exactly that. I live in New York and over the past year I've dated a string of actresses, some moderately successful (several year soap runs, broadway), some less so (off broadway, guerrilla theatre, etc. . .) All of them have been outrageously dedicated and talented. Still, for all of that there is no guarantee of success at the end of that multi-year struggle.

It's a good lesson to learn that risk isn't a word that means "work really hard for several years and you'll get your pot of gold." Risk means that you could pour your heart and soul into something, be extremely talented, do everything right, and still end up with nothing. To think otherwise is to fall prey to the just world hypothesis.

Re: Ang Lee and the uncertainty of success

#86

Post by bluedino »

dm8 wrote: post #36
MikeCapone wrote: post #4

Very inspiring, though this makes me think that we also have to worry about survivorship bias. How many people stuck to their guns, focused, worked really hard for years, and nothing ever happened for them (at least nothing close to their dreams)? Probably many, though I'm sure it's still the best way to maximize your chances of getting there; by giving up, you are assured of not making it; but even doing your best b…

Genuine question, how do you know when to continue/slog and when to stop?

When you run out of passion, or will.

Re: Ang Lee and the uncertainty of success

#87

Post by hyperberry »

enraged_camel wrote: post #66

I read the story. It is very touching. That said, I think stories like this send a very dangerous message. The reality of the matter is that for every person who stuck to their passion and ultimately "succeeded," there are thousands who lived the rest of their lives in obscurity and never "made it." When I was reading the story and Ang Le said he started taking computer science classes at the local college, I though,…

>The reality of the matter is that for every person who stuck to their passion and ultimately "succeeded," there are thousands who lived the rest of their lives in obscurity and never "made it."

How do you quantify this? What is your data? I think it's easy to claim there are "thousands" who faded into obscurity, but is it truly the case?

And for that innumerable set of folks that never made it . . . did they really stick to their passion?

I'm inclined to agree with the top-rated comment on this one:

>If you stick with it, you'll be successful. It doesn't matter where you come from, who your parents are, what you know, who you know, or how you look. All that is required is a choice -- a commitment to excellence.

I've had my 7 years of fat followed by 7 years of lean. There is a very real correlation between attitude/commitment/hard work and success.

Re: Ang Lee and the uncertainty of success

#88

Post by jcslzr »

thejerz wrote: post #10

I knew Taylor Swift growing up. Like Ang Lee, for around 6 to 8 years Taylor acted in musicals, sang at festivals, entered competitions, and recorded demos. She was bad at first (sorry Taylor!), but she kept working at it. Every day, she was writing another lyric, or taking another guitar lesson, or auditioning for another play, or switching voice teachers. The reason I knew her was that I went to school with her (sh…

The sad thing is that there are probably at least hundreds if not thousands of girls that did this....and still there is just a few successful singers.

I will go along the lines of having a life purpose and work to get it, the person you will become because of this will be the reward, not neccesary the destination.

Re: Ang Lee and the uncertainty of success

#89

Post by pdog »

weeksie wrote: post #85
thejerz wrote: post #10

I knew Taylor Swift growing up. Like Ang Lee, for around 6 to 8 years Taylor acted in musicals, sang at festivals, entered competitions, and recorded demos. She was bad at first (sorry Taylor!), but she kept working at it. Every day, she was writing another lyric, or taking another guitar lesson, or auditioning for another play, or switching voice teachers. The reason I knew her was that I went to school with her (sh…

The problem is that there are a ton of people that do exactly that. I live in New York and over the past year I've dated a string of actresses, some moderately successful (several year soap runs, broadway), some less so (off broadway, guerrilla theatre, etc. . .) All of them have been outrageously dedicated and talented. Still, for all of that there is no guarantee of success at the end of that multi-year struggle. I…

Exactly. I live in NYC as well, and over the past year I've dated a lot of fashion models. All of these women are gorgeous and successful (signed with major agencies - doing runway, magazine, and mixed media work). Some still struggle to make rent. Models don't have long careers, and while they're all outrageously beautiful and talented, there's no guarantee of success.

Re: Ang Lee and the uncertainty of success

#90

Post by segmondy »

thejerz wrote: post #10

I knew Taylor Swift growing up. Like Ang Lee, for around 6 to 8 years Taylor acted in musicals, sang at festivals, entered competitions, and recorded demos. She was bad at first (sorry Taylor!), but she kept working at it. Every day, she was writing another lyric, or taking another guitar lesson, or auditioning for another play, or switching voice teachers. The reason I knew her was that I went to school with her (sh…

Well said! I just had to reply since the vast majority of replies on your thread don't agree. I agree 110% with you. It boils down to will power, and applying yourself consistently in the right direction!
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