Prove It All Over Again

You may ask yourself, “What is that beautiful house?”
You may ask yourself, “Where does that highway go to?”
And you may ask yourself, “Am I right, am I wrong?”
And you may say to yourself, “My God, what have I done?”

Same as it ever was, same as it ever was
Same as it ever was, same as it ever was
Same as it ever was, same as it ever was
Same as it ever was, same as it ever was -Talking Heads, song “Once In A Lifetime”

Speaking of “proving it”…

You might feel that once you write that first great novel, direct that hit movie, be nominated for that award, make that gold record, produce that hit play, etc…you’ve now arrived. Everyone will be chomping at the bit for your next effort. You no longer need to prove yourself.

Nope.

Not only do you need to prove it all over again and delight people, but now come the doubters and the naysayers. The people with arms crossed who are like, “Alright, let’s see what all the hype is about.” And that’s if you’re lucky to even have an audience that follows you. If you’re doing small theatre with no subscriber base, you’ll have to find your audience all over again.

That’s okay. It’s a gift. You get to go back to the beginning. With openness and a beginner’s mind. Drop your attachments and expectations and put your whole heart and soul into this new project. As if it’s the first one you ever did and the last one you’ll ever do.

P.S. – My friend Turney–read his best seller “The Buy Side”; it’s an absolute page turner–sent me the below note re: MJ and his maniacal competitiveness as mentioned in my blog post…

I was at a Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue afterparty and Jordan was there. He was in my way as I was trying to get to the bar to get another tequila. I sort of got pushed into him and he said
“Easy, little man.”
So I said, “Man, I wish Ehlo would have blocked that shot.”

Like a switch was flipped — he went from smiling at me to hating me.

I saw something change in his eyes — it was scary.