Author Archives: thevsstudioblog

“They’re stuck in a job they don’t like. They’re stuck working for a boss they don’t like. They’re stuck on a team they don’t like…I just tell them, ‘Be great.’ The reality of life is that you can’t just always quit your job. You can’t just always go to your boss and say, ‘Give meContinue reading “How To Get Unstuck”

Under-promising and over-delivering is a great strategy. For a while. Just make sure you’re not continually doing it to let yourself off the hook. Or to hide. To achieve your full potential, it might be time to make some promises you’re not entirely sure you can fulfill. To over-promise. Or to quote the great IrishContinue reading “Time To Over-Promise?”

“Most letters from a parent contain a parent’s own lost dreams disguised as good advice. My good advice to you is to pay somebody to teach you to speak some foreign language, to meet with you two or three times a week and talk. Also: get somebody to teach you to play a musical instrument.Continue reading “Never Too Late”

“You wouldn’t worry so much about what others think of you if you realized how seldom they do.” -Eleanor Roosevelt “My former colleague, the poet Michael Burkard, used to talk about “back-door ego.” This is the habit of self-abasement we all have, in which “I suck” is just another way of saying “I am vastlyContinue reading “Pride In Reverse”

It seems to be the case that… …When you feel like you were amazing and expect heaps of praise, you get nothing. Crickets. …When you feel like you were terrible and expect tons of criticism, you get unexpected compliments. I’m not exactly sure why that is. But there’s something really cool and perhaps divinely orderedContinue reading “Divine Feedback”

“Stanislavsky once wrote that you should ‘play well or badly, but play truly.’ It is not up to you whether your performance will be brilliant-all that is under your control is your intention. It is not under your control whether your career will be brilliant-all that is under your control is your intention. If youContinue reading “Why We Do It”

“Perfect is the enemy of the good.” -Voltaire “And now that you don’t have to be perfect, you can be good.” -John Steinbeck Being good, let alone great at something is underrated. It takes a tremendous amount of discipline, hard work and dedication to your craft. Being perfect, especially when it comes to art, isContinue reading “Perfectly Good”

“And then when I walked down the street people would’ve looked and they would’ve said there goes Roy Hobbs, the best there ever was in this game” -quote from the film The Natural, based on the novel by Bernard Malamud “Every film I do, I have to believe that I’m making the best film that’sContinue reading “The Best Thing Ever”

Per Google Search… An irritant, such as a grain of sand or a parasite, enters a mollusk (like an oyster or mussel) and triggers a defense mechanism where the mollusk secretes nacre (mother-of-pearl) in layers around the irritant. This layering process, which can take years, forms a pearl as a protective barrier against the foreignContinue reading “Irritant”

“There is only one happiness in life—to love and be loved.” -George Sand For the actor… Sometimes, the fastest way to “find the character” is to strip away some of the advantages or privileges you might have or even take for granted. Ask yourself what your world view would be like if you didn’t receiveContinue reading “Find It By Losing It”