The Vs. Studio Blog

“Everybody wants to be on a championship team, but nobody wants to come to practice.” -Bobby Knight

The hen asks the other farm animals: “Who will help me bake the bread?” No one replies.

The hen later asks, “Who will help me eat the bread?” Everyone says: “I will!” -from the fable, The Little Red Hen

You’ve got two choices:

Complain about the fact that no one wants to do the un-fun but necessary work of practicing or baking.

Or inspire them to do it with you.

If you’re a producer in a collaborative medium like theatre, you only have one choice.

“People who reject you or your work aren’t giving you the real reason. They’re simply inserting ‘here is where I write a few generic sentences to sound polite.’

Even if you could completely answer the objection in that rejection letter, they’re still going to reject you. That’s because the rejector isn’t here to teach you anything, and isn’t offering the objection so that you will correct it. They’re simply being nice when they say, ‘go away.’

The honest rejections would say something like, ‘my boss didn’t like you,’ or ‘I was in a bad mood,’ or ‘we realized that our spec wasn’t very clear and the person we liked didn’t fit it either,’ or “we wanted someone who looked more like us,’ or ‘your competence made us nervous,’ or…

Take what they wrote and replace it with “no.”

It’ll save a lot of time.” -Seth Godin

The best thing you can get to your request (or audition, proposal, interview, etc.) is YES.

The second best thing you can get is a NO.

Why?

Because now you can close the loop and move on.

You don’t need to look for a reason. You won’t get a satisfying one anyway. It’s a waste of time.

No is all you need.

“Remember that you are an actor in a play, and that the Playwright chooses the manner of it: If he wants the play to be short, it is short; if long, it is long. If he wants you to act a poor man, a cripple, a public official, or a private person, see that you act it with skill. For it is your job to act well the part that is assigned to you; but to choose it is another’s.” -Epictetus

You may not get to choose the role.

But you do get to choose how you play it.

Play it with all your heart.

P.S. – This metaphor isn’t just about acting, but it applies to all of life.

P.P.S. – The Vs. Studio core mission and a major point of focus for this blog, is to help artists find and manifest their passion project. And to do so with excellence and generosity. The beauty of committing to this is that when you do, you actually do get to choose your dream role.

“You can’t get lucky if you don’t take action. The best opportunity in the world is just a missed opportunity if you don’t grab it.” -James Clear

“Luck is a volume game disguised as a mystery. It’s what happens when you create enough surface area for opportunity to stick to…Luck is a heat-seeking missile that follows rejection and ignores comfort. It finds people who refuse to stop moving.” -Mark Manson

“Sometimes you gotta leave your zone of safety…You’ve got to run with the wolves. …Or just treat yourself to a delicious hot fudge sundae”. -Tenacious D

I read the below post (scroll to bottom) from Mark Manson about Colonel Sanders and Kentucky Fried Chicken, and two questions came to mind:

(1) Did he just keep making the same recipe every time or did he iterate based on the rejections?

(2) After 1,009 rejections (or even just 109), what gave him the confidence to go after 1,010? How did he not take the rejections as evidence that he was doing the wrong thing and should do something else?

And the best answer I came up with is…

…Tenacity.

This tenacity allowed him to view the rejections not as failures or evidence that he was on the wrong path. But just a natural part of the process.

So ask yourself, how bad do you really want it? How tenacious are you?

Full excerpt below…

At age 65, Colonel Sanders was unemployed, broke, and sleeping in his car. But he had two things left:

A pressure cooker and 1,010 chances.

It all started when a new interstate was built that bypassed the restaurant The Colonel owned in Corbin, Kentucky. Overnight, his business died.

So he closed it down, cashed his $105 Social Security check, and looked around at a life that had come apart.

This wasn’t his first collapse either:

A bridge killed his ferry business.
Electricity wiped out his lamp company.
The Depression shut down his gas station.
But Sanders was a glutton for punishment (and chicken), so instead of calling it quits, he loaded up his 1946 Ford with a pressure cooker, a tin of flour and spice, and a blanket.

Then he drove.

Sanders travelled the country, cooking chicken in diners, trying to convince owners to franchise his recipe.

They said no. 1,009 times, they said no. Sanders slept in his car between pitches, saving every dollar to keep going.

On the 1,010th try, someone finally said yes.

And by age 73, Sanders had 600 franchises.

By his death, there were 6,000 KFCs in 48 countries, and the company was doing $2 billion a year in sales.

People like to believe luck is random. That some people have it and others don’t.
But that’s not how it works.

Luck is a volume game disguised as a mystery. It’s what happens when you create enough surface area for opportunity to stick to.

Sanders didn’t get lucky on attempt 1,010 because the universe finally decided he deserved it. He got lucky because he gave luck 1,010 different doors to walk through.

Luck is a heat-seeking missile that follows rejection and ignores comfort. It finds people who refuse to stop moving. And after he had earned all his scars, luck showed up for Colonel Sanders.

You say you’ve tried everything—

But have you tried 1,010 times while sleeping in a car?

“I’m one of these people that thinks that everybody has certain gifts when they’re born. Not everybody goes through the trouble of trying to figure out just what they are.” -Bob Dylan

“If you haven’t learned how to do something, the people who have may seem to be magicians, possessors of mysterious secrets. But they are not. In any complex art such as house-keeping, piano-playing, clothes-making, or story-writing, there are so many techniques, skills, choices of method, so many variables, that you can learn them only by methodical, repeated, long-continued practice—in other words, by work…Nothing I know about how I learned to do the things I am good at doing leads me to believe that there are ‘secrets’ to the piano or the sewing machine or any other art I’m no good at. There is just the obstinate, continuous cultivation of a disposition, leading to skill in performance.” -Ursula Le Guin

“The key thing is to force yourself through the work it takes to force the skills to come. That’s the hardest phase…Your problem is you’re trying to judge all these things in the abstract before you do them. And that’s your tragic mistake. I mean it’s not a satisfying answer to hear that you just have to get in there and do things, but in fact it’s the only really honest answer that anybody would give you who’s done it…You just have to push very, very hard on things before they get to be good. And yourself as well.” -Ira Glass talking to students about creating This American Life

Maybe you suck at the thing now. But if you love the thing, and you put in the work over a long enough period of time, you won’t suck later.

So, do you love it enough to go through the suck?

P.S. H/t to the always excellent Billy Oppenheimer for inspiring this post.

“Clarity isn’t about knowing what you want to do with your life, it’s about knowing what you want to do this week. You don’t need to have it all figured out. You just need to know your next step.” -James Clear

“As you start to walk on the way, the way appears.” -Rumi

Do you have the patience to wait
till your mud settles and the water is clear?
Can you remain unmoving
till the right action arises by itself? –Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu (Stephen Mitchell translation)

It takes a lot of faith and clarity to make your art. (Or start your business, complete your project, accomplish your goal, etc.)

But the good news is that you don’t need that faith and clarity all at once.

You just need enough to have the courage to take one step.

And then, after you take it, you will eventually get enough clarity and faith to take the next one.

And then the next.

And so on and so on.

One faithful step at a time. That’s all you need. That’s how it all gets done.

Go make your art.

“The greater danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short, but in setting our aim too low, and achieving our mark.” -Michelangelo

Perhaps the reason you’re not going all out, not giving it everything you have, is that you’re worried, “What happens if my best isn’t good enough?”

Far easier and safer to think to yourself, “Well, if I really wanted to, I would have tried harder. But I didn’t really want to.” That gives you an out.

But here’s the thing…that out, will always eat at you. At some point, that safe choice will turn into regret. And it will be a better pill to swallow.

Far better to know you tried your best at something, that you want after it with all your heart. And if it isn’t good enough, then so be it. You tried. You learned. You now know. No regrets.

On the other hand, what happens if your best IS good enough. What if it’s far better than you ever could have imagined?

You won’t know until you try,

Lakers coach and former NBA/Duke basketball player JJ Redick, once told a story about Coach K giving him some tough love…Duke lost to UConn in the Final Four and in an exit meeting Coach K told him that he didn’t work hard enough. He told Redick, “We didn’t win a national championship because you weren’t worthy of being a champion.’

While it stung in the moment, Redick realized that it was true. That he wasn’t working hard enough. That he was holding back because he was afraid his best wasn’t good enough. He was actually on the verge of quitting basketball. After that meeting with Coach K, Redick decided:

“No coach could ever say that about me again.”

That summer, he redefined his habits, his mindset, and his work ethic.

The result?

Over the next two seasons, Redick became the best player in college basketball, won National Player of the Year, and set Duke’s all-time scoring record.

P.S. – This scene.

“Compound interest is the eight wonder of the world. He who understands it, earns it… he who doesn’t… pays it.” -Albert Einstein

“No great thing is created suddenly, any more than a bunch of grapes or a fig. If you tell me that you desire a fig, I answer you that there must be time. Let it first blossom, then bear fruit, then ripen.” -Epictetus

“Excellence isn’t built in grand moments. It’s built in the ones no one sees. Making your bed when you’re exhausted. Starting the hard task first. Putting your phone away during dinner. These micro-choices seem insignificant, but they compound. Each small act of discipline is a vote for the person you’re becoming. Skip them, and you train yourself that commitments are optional. Keep them, and you build unshakeable character. Who you are in the small things is who you are.” -Veronica Joce

Even if you only improve by .01 percent every day, at some point in the future, the growth will look explosive.

Because the real takeaway about compound interest is that all the big gains come towards the very end. (See chart above)

You gotta stay in it to win it.

P.S. – This doesn’t just apply to money. It applies to you anything you want to accomplish in life.

“Your entire life will change the moment you realize it’s not supposed to be easy. The most valuable things in life are hard to earn. That’s precisely why they’re so valuable.” -Shail Bloom

It don’t come easy
You know it don’t come easy
It don’t come easy
You know it don’t come easy
Got to pay your dues if you wanna sing the blues -song “It Don’t Come Easy” by Ringo Starr

“The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way.” -Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

You might be hating the struggle now.

But someday, after you’ve accomplished the task, you will look back and love the struggle.

Because we don’t value what comes easy.

We value what is hard. What requires our effort and focus. What truly costs us something.

So keep going and while you’re going, remember to love the struggle.

P.S. – The IKEA effect.

“Everybody wants a transformation. Nobody wants the hundred boring, thankless days it actually takes to get it. Progress feels like nothing’s happening when you’re mid-journey. You only see how far you’ve come once you stop and look back.” -Mark Manson

For whatever the project, goal or new initiative, ask yourself if you can commit to 100 boring days in a row. 100 boring days where it won’t feel like you’re making progress. 100 boring days where you’re frustrated, angry even. 100 boring days where the only thing keeping you going is the vision you had at the beginning of the project. 100 boring days where all you have is the blind faith that this is what you should do. Because it’s important and you want to make this change.

And then, go commit and do 100 boring days.

When you’re in it, it won’t feel like progress.  It will just be one boring day after another.

But on day 100, you will look back and see how far you’ve come.  You’ll be blown away. Then it will all make sense, and you’ll be so glad you did it.

P.S. – “Show me sand the floor.” This scene.