Build Your Team

Whether you’re an actor, director, writer, producer, DP, above or below the line, if you're building a career in the entertainment industry chances are you’re a self-motivated person. We all know that this business is unlike any other. There are no hard and fast rules to success. And success comes in many different forms, not just financial. So if you're pursuing a profession that has no true guide-posts, how do you find perspective? In a world where most play by the rules, how do you survive in a business that has none? Build your team!

"No man is an island," a quote from a favorite film of mine, ABOUT A BOY. Unfortunately most artist folk think they are, or at least get labeled as solitary types. Over the centuries artists have gotten a bad wrap. When you think of famous ones you've read about they were usually tortured souls, misfits of society, misunderstood brooding geniuses holed up in their one room abodes wrestling with an existential crisis until a great masterpiece was produced at the cost of their sanity or sobriety. If you find that romantic and don't mind dying before your forty, than I guess that's one way to go. But there's another more practical way to cope with the stresses of being a self-actualized person. While you pave your own way, seek out partnerships, and collaborate. Sometimes when you take the road less traveled you need to build it as you go along, or at least clear the brush and pull up a few weeds along the way. It's a heck of a lot easier to do that with the help of others. When I look up the word, "creation" it is defined as, the act of founding or establishing, and the totality of all existing things. Though the act of founding something may be solitary, establishing it usually requires others. What would the Constitution be without the Founding Fathers? When one observes a beautiful flower, isn't the growth of that beauty a collective effort from nature? The flower is a microcosm within the whole.

So who's on your team? Think of all the people you need to keep "you" in business. If you're an actor I bet you never thought of your mechanic as being a team member for your career. But how would you get to all your auditions in L.A. without a well-maintained car? What about your hairdresser, or your personal trainer? The yoga instructor you like to take class from weekly because you always walk out of their class feeling de-stressed and serene. If you're an editor or work with computers in any way, do you have tech support? If you're a director, do you have certain crew members you prefer to work with when you can choose? Just think how much smoother a set runs when the team knows how to work well together? What about a travel agent that always gets you on a flight at the last minute? Housekeepers, dog walkers, mentors, writing partners. accountants, assistants, lawyers, sitters, coaches, photographers, printers, drycleaners and the list goes on. They are all team members that help the business of "you" run smoothly. If you've never thought of it like this, start. It's all about perspective. When you work for yourself and have the sole responsibility to keep motivated and efficient, these people are like employees in your company. Good employees are hard to find, so if you don't have favorite, reliable go to people for these things look for them. Being entrepreneurial doesn't mean operating alone. The risk may be yours, but there is, and should be, plenty of help along the way. So when you emerge from the all-consuming madness of your latest artistic endeavor, you at least have some peeps helping you survive the day to day.