Keep At It

I'm watching Master Class on OWN and the producer of Saturday Night Live is the focus. He talks about when he first got the idea for the show, how he pulled together what he thought would work, played it by ear and made it up as he went along. But his advice hits close to home for me: keep at it. It took him persistence and perseverance to make it all happen. I've had a lot of great ideas over the years, ideas that I've told people about, and everyone seems to be excited and on board, but when it gets hard and things start falling through, I let it go. It frightens me to look at successful people and see how they managed to hang onto their dreams and goals and never give up: how they had the ability to throw caution to the wind and make things up as they went along even when the magic was gone and popularity far from sight, when the fates weren't aligning and they were the only ones who cared whether or not a project blasted off to success or simply dropped off into nonexistence. Sometimes there comes a point when you're passionate about an idea, and the execution of that idea lies completely on your willpower alone and you know that you can take the easy route and let it go and move on with life with no changes, or you can make phone calls, show up in offices, have awkward conversations, make a fool of yourself, live in a state of confusion, anxiety, and insecurity, all for the unassured possibility of really doing something worth while. I value willpower and perseverance above many other things, and I'll finally admit that I am a lazy person. I take the easy road out. I need to take the advice of successful people that have come before me and keep at it. If I've learned anything from biking it's how to tackle a hill: it's how to keep at it. I know how. I just need to actually do it and stop living in fear. On the Master Class before this one, Simon Cowell threw out the comment that 17 year old's don't know everything. I am 20. I know and understand a lot. I do not know everything, I have faults, but still I refuse to live in shame and defeat, I will admit that I am a work in progress, and keep at it because I do see in myself a glimmer of what is in the successful leaders I look up to.

6/23/11