The Vs. Studio Blog

The king went to Gibeon to offer sacrifices, for that was the most important high place, and Solomon offered a thousand burnt offerings on that altar. At Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon during the night in a dream, and God said, “Ask for whatever you want me to give you.”

Solomon answered, “You have shown great kindness to your servant, my father David, because he was faithful to you and righteous and upright in heart. You have continued this great kindness to him and have given him a son to sit on his throne this very day.

“Now, Lord my God, you have made your servant king in place of my father David. But I am only a little child and do not know how to carry out my duties. Your servant is here among the people you have chosen, a great people, too numerous to count or number. So give your servant a discerning heart to govern your people and to distinguish between right and wrong. For who is able to govern this great people of yours?” -1 Kings 3: 4-9

“Good judgement is the result of experience and experience the result of bad judgment.” –Mark Twain

“Four things belong to a judge: To hear courteously; to answer wisely; to consider soberly; and to decide impartially.” –Socrates

I recently put together a week long, off-campus, Finance & Investing “Experience” for twenty of my high school students (I cheekily called it “Billionaire Bootcamp”). These were all students who wanted to learn more about finance, investing, real estate and entrepreneurship.

I’m extremely lucky to have graduated from the University of Chicago with a very close group of friends, all highly accomplished in various industries, including finance. I called on this friend group to come and speak to my students and they offered incredible, world-class advice.

One of them–Joe–in preparation to talk to my students, asked a billionaire that he works with, what single piece of advice he would give to those looking to make it big. Perhaps even to become a billionaire.

The billionaire’s answer?…

Good judgment.

If you have good judgment and make good decisions, then you’ve got a chance at a billion. More importantly, you will have a high quality and happy life.

Without good judgment?….You don’t stand a chance.

“You can’t just visualize and go eat a sandwich”. -Jim Carrey

“The number one factor for resilience—for actually getting through hard things—is self-efficacy. Which is basically the belief that you can handle whatever you’re going through…Positive thinking while you’re sitting on the couch scrolling cat videos is useless. In fact, it’s probably keeping you on that couch longer. But positive thinking mid-struggle, when everything in you wants to quit? That’s when it can be the difference between pushing through and giving up.”

Positive affirmations are great. And research shows that they can help you get through times when you’re struggling.

But their power lies in the fact that you’re first actually trying to do something hard to then affirm.

“Sometimes a dream almost whispers… the hardest thing to listen to — your instincts, your human personal intuition — always whispers; it never shouts.” -Steven Spielberg

“Quiet the mind and the soul will speak.” -Buddha

“There is a voice inside of you that whispers all day long, “I feel this is right for me, I know that this is wrong.” -Shel Silverstein

Your inner voice is whispering. Telling you what you should do.

Can you get quiet enough to hear it?

And once you hear it, can you be courageous enough to follow it?

“The tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao. The name that can be named is not the eternal Name. The unnamable is the eternally real. Naming is the origin of all particular things.” -Tao Te Ching by Lao-Tzu (Stephen Mitchell translation)

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence is a habit, not an act.” -Aristotle

A follow up to yesterday’s post “What’s In A Name”…

Pick a name for your project (or company or whatever it is you’re trying to do) that feels right to you in the moment. Don’t worry if it’s perfect. Just decide on something and get moving.

If you’re intentional and consistently produce excellent work over a long enough period of time, then the name will eventually be perfect.

Because everyone will associate your name (or brand) with excellence. And that’s a perfect place to be.

“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose/ By any other name would smell as sweet.” -Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet

Not starting your company or band or project or script or whatever idea you have until you have the perfect name for it is just an excuse to stall.

You’ll never have the perfect name.

Just pick something pretty good. Or at the very least one that doesn’t suck.

And get to work.

True story behind why we named ourselves “Vs. Theatre Company” (or at least a major reason)…It was the title of our favorite Pearl Jam album. (H/t to my good buddy Ron Klier for that one.)

“Grit is passion and perseverance for very long- term goals. Grit is having stamina. Grit is sticking with your future, day-in, day-out. Not just for the week, not just for the month, but for years. And working really hard to make that future a reality. Grit is living life like it’s a marathon, not a sprint.” -Angela Duckworth

Grit is a wonderful thing

But it’s also a finite resource.

Therefore, you must have goals that (a) truly energize you, (b) you actually think you can accomplish someday and (c) you can’t have too many at one time.

Choose your goals wisely my friend.

“Go positive and go first, and be constant in doing it.” -Peter Kaufman (CEO of Glenair)

“To understand is to know what to do.” -Ludwig Wittgenstein

“The most powerful force in the universe is compound interest.” -Albert Einstein

Speaking of going first, the transcript of this talk given by Peter Kaufman is a must read.

Tons of absolute gems in here. Enjoy it this weekend over a cup of coffee.

And when you’re done, go first at something. And then go first again. And again. And again….

You won’t regret it.

P.S. – H/t to Shane Parrish for providing.

There’s a fantastic scene in the film Jay Kelly in which the character of Jay, a movie star (played by George Clooney), meets up with an old friend from acting class, Timothy (played by Billy Crudup). After reminiscing about old times including Jay telling Timothy that he was far and away the best actor in the class (“I could watch you do anything.”) the two have a confrontation in the parking lot. Timothy tells Jay “I can’t stand you. You kind of stole my life.” He wanted to be an actor, but Jay swooped in on an audition, got the part and the rest is history. Timothy gave up acting entirely, got married and is now a child therapist.

The scene got me thinking…why does being an artist (in this case, an actor) have to be a binary option? Either you “make it” in the business. Or you don’t, and have to quit.

Well, it’s not binary.

There’s a third option.

Which is…Have a job/career that pays the bills, doesn’t kill your soul, and in all your free time, make art.

That could be taking classes, doing play readings (Vs. does one every week), making short films or producing a play. Not to mention reading and seeing plays, and watching films.

Yes, the third option requires discipline and focus and sacrifice and commitment. And yes, you may never get paid a single dime for your art.

But no matter what, you can hang your head high knowing that you never gave up on your dream, your love, your art.

And that’s a helluva good option and life.

Go make your art.

Never stop making your art.

You will never, ever regret going first.

Even if your work wasn’t quite good enough to ship or you weren’t fully ready for the moment or you didn’t have all the necessary data to make the best possible decision, you still won’t regret going first.

Best case scenario?…Success. A positive outcome.

Worst case scenario?…Failure. A negative outcome…Kinda….Because you will gain an incredible and invaluable learning experience.

Waiting and watching while someone else goes first?…You get nothing. Nada. Zero. Zilch.

Just go first.

“They focus on the wrong things. There are a lot of aspiring comedians, for example, who aren’t funny or don’t have stage presence, but they have excellent websites. They have excellent websites and the shiniest business cards and their head shots are impeccable. And who gives a f-ck about those things? You know what I mean? They focus on the wrong things…

[On people who excel]…

“They focus on the work. I think that’s all it is: they focus on the work. On the content. On creating something of substance.” -Jerrod Carmichael when asked about common mistakes aspiring comedians make

“Good songs. Good songs. That’s it. That’s it. Good songs. I promise. A good song. Not songs that have all of the technical body parts. I mean good songs.” -John Mayer when asked how to market your music and get exposure

Notwithstanding that making a living in the arts is really f-ing hard and often not a meritocracy and that you need a lot of luck, etc…what if the reason you’re not where you want to be is because your work just isn’t quite good enough…

…Yet.

Don’t be disheartened by that.

Be inspired and empowered.

Because it means it’s within your control.

You could get there.

Keep at it. Keep working. Keep training. Keep growing.

And regardless if your efforts ever lead to monetary success, isn’t it awesome to know that there’s always another level you can get to? I mean, that’s the whole reason to do it anyway, right? For the pursuit of excellence…Otherwise, why are you doing it?