Monday, July 12, 2010

Are you in it for the long haul?

Recently I spent time with a lovely writer friend of mine, who shared that her biggest challenge in the industry had to do with her "neediness". I probed a bit further, wondering what she meant by this. She explained that since she's currently looking for an agent, she knows that she comes across as needy when she asks people for referrals.

My response is to turn that neediness on its head - see whether there are ways you can give back (what Dallas Travers would call "adding value") to the people you are asking. She said, "well, these are not people who would want anything from me." And herein lies the crux of the issue. We are all unique individuals. We each have a unique set of gifts and often those gifts are also tied to our greatest challenges. But if we don't believe that we have something special to offer, why are we doing this at all? Sure, I get down sometimes and wonder whether I'll be able to "make it" in an industry full of beautiful, talented women. But if I didn't think I had something truly special and unique, I wouldn't stay here. You have to ask yourself whether you're in it for the long haul - do you have something to share with the world that absolutely MUST get out there? If the answer is yes (and I hope it is, if you're breathing the LA air) then see every interaction as the beginning of a long-term relationship. There are people you're going to meet this week who can't do anything for you yet, and you would just feel like a leech asking them for anything right now, but if you keep in touch with them, perhaps a few months or years from now, you'll end up working together.
So, you've been in LA for a year or more - you found a place to live, you bought a car and you even signed with an agent.

Now what?

This blog is about taking your career to the next level - thinking big, thinking outside the box and working collaboratively to achieve success. Success in LA.