Practical – what is your current standard? Are you better off trying to attract a studio to a blockbuster treatment, or attract student film-makers to produce one of your short films? Do you have the craft to handle a feature film? Being practical about your position, you are better placed to take the right strategic step, which will payoff and build your career, rather than frustrate and ultimately perturb you.
Proactive – take your success into your own hands. Write as much as you can, attend networking events, enter competitions, call producers, take on internships, put together your own short films.
Professional – even if you are not yet a professional, always handle yourself in a way befitting a professional. Punctual, delivering what you’ve promised, communicative and clear.
Patient – success very rarely comes overnight. If you quit your job to write a screenplay, convinced it well sell within a few months, then you’re likely going to be in for a rude awakening. Success can take years in this industry – though smaller measures of success can occur daily, weekly and monthly. Set yourself short-term, mid-term and long-term goals – weeks, months and years – and plan for sustained growth.
And if all else fails I turn to Ray Bradbury who said:
To fail is to give up. But you are in the midst of a moving process. Nothing fails then. All goes on. Work is done. If good, you learn from it. If bad, you learn even more.Work done and behind you is a lesson to be studied. There is no failure unless one stops.