Keeping Your Acting Career on Track
Five Proverbs for Continued Success
Sometimes in the midst of trying to find acting work, holding down your day job and living your life, you can lose site of some important principles for success. You may find yourself overwhelmed by the myriad of things that need to be done, unable to step back and gain perspective or unwilling to commit more time and effort to your career. So to help get you back on track, here are five axioms from the business world modified for your acting career.
Don’t Put Off Doing the Boring Things
These are the tedious tasks that make up the nuts and bolts of running your office. Yet you find yourself putting them off until suddenly there’s a crisis. Things like:
- Placing that order to get more copies of your headshot.
- Sending out those, "Thank You" cards.
- Entering all those new contacts into your database.
Your office will not run smoothly unless you make it a point to spend at least 30 minutes a day doing these tasks. In fact, do them first and get them out of the way! Remember, “For want of a horseshoe nail, an army was lost.”
Quit Waiting for Your One Big Break
You know this fable; all it takes is one lucky break and you’ve made it. Nothing could be further from the truth. Real success doesn’t come from doing one thing brilliantly on one occasion. It comes from doing many little things very well over a long period time. Yes, you may have a lucky break and find yourself working on a dream roject that could really give your career a boost, but that’s the exception that underlines the rule. To get that big break you have to successfully accomplish a series of smaller ones first. Like Aesop’s turtle said, “Slow and steady wins the race.”
Be an Asset on Every Project
When you’re negotiating the terms under which you’ll work on a project, your primary thought is, “What’s in it for me?” But once you’ve agreed to the terms of the contract and accepted the role, you should be thinking, “What can I do, as part of the ensemble, to make this the best production possible?” Unfortunately, too many actors keep asking themselves the first question. The results are friction, pettiness, and unnecessary chaos that ultimately hurt the production and, in the long run, your career. A mature, diplomatic and team-oriented actor will not only be appreciated by everyone on the project but will be called back again for future work.
Being Good Is Not Good Enough
One of the hardest things to watch is an actor who has allowed his/her talents to atrophy. They were deemed good or even very good once, but then they decided to just coast along at that level and not try to refine or expand their talents. You must always push yourself to do better in all aspects of your work; it’s called the pursuit of excellence. Here are some examples:
- Give yourself new acting goals every night you’re performing the play.
- Enroll in that dance class that's a step up in difficulty.
- Make read more books on networking, advertising or internet marketing.
Be Prepared When the Stars Align
For you to be in the right place at the right time, means understanding three things.
- You must be ready to act on any opportunities that arise. Have your business cards handy and try to find out who’s going to be at that particular event. First impressions are important, so remember that a charming actor is always memorable.
- Know where the right place is. This means attending the opening night of a film festival, going to an actor get-together or even volunteering your time to be a reader at an audition.
- Chance and randomness rule our lives and understanding and accepting this is important. But you can tilt the odds in your favor by focusing on always being prepared and continually putting yourself in the right place.
Class Dismissed. Now go out and bang your own drum!
If you’d like to read another article on this general topic, go to: Actors and Networking - How Randomness and Chance Can be Used to Your Advantage
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