Talent without ambition goes nowhere. But even talent with ambition needs more…
I just viewed a film documenting the life and career of a well-loved stage and screen star. She came from showbiz royalty and possessed great talent and focused ambition from her youth. All amazing advantages in fulfilling her potential.
But her life was fraught with obstacles and adversity. The documentary made clear that she would never have fully realized her career had she not surrounded herself with the right people.
Lucky is the talent who has a capacity to let the right people into their life, who is able to avoid the many “vampires” who are drawn to the vulnerability an artist must have on tap.
In addition to refining and strengthening their idiosyncratic talent, an artist must weather much personally and professionally. This calls for mentors, teachers and more advanced colleagues to model resilience and persistence in the face of a career’s ups and downs.
Nothing teaches more quickly and fully than in-person time with those further along than you. Even a brief encounter can serve as an indelible beacon for your artistic path as well as your life.
So- you’re talented and want to advance. What should you do besides just “get really good?”
1. Get away from the solitude and scattering distraction of your attention- and time-sucking screens. Get together with those who create and forge a habit of creating with them- face to face.
2. Abandon your desert island of low expectations and meager opportunity. Relocate to where much more is asked of you.
3. Find a community, a class, a performance, a show- where you can benefit in-person from the radiance of artists, teachers and mentors, whose fully-formed talent can nourish and help you excavate the artist you have buried within you.
You become what you do. But you also clothe your unique talent in a mosaic of the energy and artistry of those masters and generous creatives you spend time with.
Surround yourself with these kinds of people. Seek them out and let them into your life.