Always Remember: You Are A Filmmaker

I had a dream once.

I had a dream, and oh! I dreamed it boldly and strongly, and I shouted it into the wind for everyone to hear! And proudly, I proclaimed it, told it to everyone who was willing to listen. With pride in my chest and a thrill in my voice, I called it out:

I’m going to be a filmmaker! I’m going to work in the film industry!

And so I worked, and I plotted, and I networked, and I wrote as much as I could, and I learned my trade and dipped my toes in, and then… then I took the plunge.

When I was in my 20s, I’d worked my usual corporate jobs (Microsoft, Google, the lot), and got myself onto a nice and healthy career path that would have sustained me for 45 years. I would have had a cushy life, with a cushy corner office at some point. Never a CEO, but never struggling to pay my bills, either. I would have been a team lead in two years, a manager in three, and a project manager in five. I would have made my comfortable six figures, and it would have been that. A 9–5 that left no need unmet.

But see… I had a dream once.

And that dream was that by the age of 30, I was going to QUIT that comfortable day job. That pesky, pesky day job. I wasn’t going to enter my 30s still working at my company (that I loved, nonetheless). I was going to be a…