The Paradox of Brilliance

This was written to a friend a while back who I felt was quite brilliant in many ways and I was certain she was on a path to never achieving what she wanted.

If you look at most of the people who became major players in any field you would not actually find the most genius or creative people in the world.  Yes, there are a few - but for the most part, they're only common denominator was their ability to focus on one task.

I've been involved in the film industry for many years now.  I've watched some friends and acquaintances go on to be world famous in a variety of fields and others fade into obscurity.  If you look at the ones who became successful, you will see that they are all very different people except for one common denominator:  They were able to focus on one thing.  Brilliant people usually find that hard - even exceptionally smart people find this difficult.

Have you ever been in a conversation with other filmmakers (or wanna be filmmakers) and listen to them criticize with no end a variety of well known filmmakers and their movies? 

You know what those well known filmmakers had that no one criticizing them did?  They stuck with it.  They never took another job, they never got excited about the internet craze or some odd hobby that didn't relate to their filmmaking dream.  They weren't very complex people for the most part - but that was their strength.

You're not alone.  You're in great company, in fact.  You have a plethora of ideas and multiple talents.  But instead of them helping you - they are hurting you because you are not in control of them.

It's time to focus.

Your fear of writing doesn't concern me nearly as much as your fear of committing to one idea.

Someday you can have six movies going on at once and a few side projects - many filmmakers do.  Then the one that's hot and ready gets the focus and then when that is under control and in post, the filmmakers slowly start to incorporate the other projects into their life again.  Someday you can do that.  But not now.  Some day you can do every single one of your projects that you want, but not right now.

You'll never do everything until you do one thing first.